The Syrian government on Wednesday said the international envoy’s call for a holiday ceasefire would likely fail because the rebels fighting to topple Bashar Assad’s regime have no unified leadership to agree to it.
The envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, had asked Iranian officials to help broker a truce during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls later this month.
But Syria’s state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said on Wednesday that the biggest obstacle to the truce was the lack of an authority to sign for the rebels.
“There is the state, represented by the government and the Army on one front, but who is on the other front,” the paper asked in an editorial.
All international efforts to end Syria’s civil war to date have failed. Both rebels and government forces have disregarded previous ceasefires, and the scores of rebel units fighting to topple the regime have no unified leadership. Many don’t communicate with each other.
Mr. Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, arrived in Beirut on Wednesday for talks with Lebanese officials on how to resolve the crisis. The visit is part of a regional tour.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdessi said in statement to the state news agency that the government was waiting for Mr. Brahimi to come to Damascus to convey to officials there the results of his tour. It would welcome any “constructive initiative,” Mr. Makdessi said.
It was unclear whether Mr. Brahimi would travel to Damascus from Beirut.
Activists say more than 33,000 have been killed in 19 months of violence in Syria.
Published - October 17, 2012 03:50 pm IST
