He is Lakhdar Brahimi,
Eduardo Del Buey, the spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
said Friday. Brahimi previously was a special U.N. representative in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The violence and the
suffering in Syria must come to an end. The secretary-general
appreciates Mr. Brahimi's willingness to bring his considerable talents
and experience to this crucial task for which he will need, and rightly
expects, the strong, clear and unified support of the international
community, including the Security Council," Del Buey said.
"Diplomacy to promote a
peaceful resolution to the conflict in Syria remains a top priority for
the United Nations. More fighting and militarization will only
exacerbate the suffering and make more difficult the path to a peaceful
resolution of the crisis, which would lead to a political transition in
accordance with the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."
Principal deputy White
House press secretary Josh Earnest said "Brahimi is a capable and
seasoned diplomat, well-known to us and others in the international
community."
U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton similarly welcomed his appointment and said her message
to Brahimi and the Syrian people was simple.
"The United States stands
ready to support you and secure a lasting peace," she said. "The
international community remains fully committed to a Syrian-led
political transition leading to a pluralistic political system
representing the will of the people."
Brahimi is a member of the Elders, the group of veteran diplomats and world leaders.
Along with his work in
Afghanistan and Iraq, he has fought for Algerian independence and served
as Algeria's foreign minister and other diplomatic roles for the
country after it achieved independence, the Elders website said.
He was an Arab League
special envoy in 1989 when he brokered the Taif Agreement that ended
Lebanon's civil war. He was a special envoy to several African
countries, led the U.N. observer mission during elections in South
Africa ushering in Nelson Mandela to power, and was sent to Yemen in
1994 to help end that country's civil war. He also led a panel to review
U.N. peacekeeping operations.
As an Elder, he was
involved with promoting peace in Cyprus and the Middle East and was part
of a process urging dialogue between Sudan and South Sudan.
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Brahimi's selection came
as Western and Arab diplomats gathered at the United Nations to try to
plot an end to a civil war that has left thousands dead and as many as
2.5 million more in dire need of humanitarian aid.
There had been talk of
the appointment, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told Syrian
State TV late Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad's regime welcomed
the pick.
Ban vowed Thursday to
keep a presence in Syria, possibly opening a liaison office that would
support efforts for a political solution to the crisis.
While Ban did not
disclose the size of the operation, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State
Department told reporters it would be a relatively small contingency of
about 20 people.
Annan recently announced
he was stepping down after his negotiated peace deal failed to take
hold. The U.N. Security Council is pulling its 300 observers who were in
Syria to monitor the failed peace plan.
As diplomats worked to
find a political solution, fighting raged across Syria. At least 168
people were killed, 40 in Damascus and its suburbs, a figure that
includes 16 young men slaughtered in Douma, the opposition Local
Coordination Committees of Syria said.
There were 45 other
deaths in Aleppo province, 36 in Daraa province, including eight in
Nawa; and 30 in Homs province, including 10 in Deir Baalba and an entire
family in Qosair.
For days, the city of Aleppo in northern Syria has been the center of some of the worst fighting.
The opposition also
accused Syrian forces of shelling flashpoint neighborhoods in Aleppo
where rebels are making a stand, according to the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights, a London-based opposition group.
It is the latest hotspot
in a nearly 18-month conflict that began in March 2011 with a brutal
government crackdown on mass protests calling for government reform. The
protest movement quickly devolved into an armed conflict.
Al-Assad's government
has refused to acknowledge the civil war, maintaining it is fighting
armed gangs and foreign fighters bent on destabilizing the country.
"Some may ask why there
is a delay in Aleppo, and I will say it is simple. The Syrian military
has plans to keep the casualties and the destruction of the
infrastructure to its minimum when confronting these armed gangs,"
Moallem told State TV.
"The Syrian military
always keeps in mind that they need to safeguard and protect everyone.
But the armed terrorist gangs have no principles, they kill and destroy
and no one holds them accountable."
CNN is unable to
independently verify claims of violence as Syria has severely restricted
the access of international journalists.
Despite the claims, the humanitarian situation in Syria appears to be deteriorating rapidly.
There has been a sharp
rise in the number of Syrians fleeing to the neighboring countries of
Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday. More than 170,000 Syrian refugees in those countries have been registered by the United Nations, it said.
"The real number of refugees is higher as not all refugees register," the agency said.
Many Iraqis who took refuge in Syria because of the war in Iraq have gone home.
"The total number of
Iraqi returnees from Syria has reached 26,821 since July 18, including
5,997 returnees by air," the agency said.
"Over a million people
have been uprooted and face destitution. Perhaps a million more have
urgent humanitarian needs due to the widening impact of the crisis on
the economy and people's livelihoods," Valerie Amos, the U.N.
under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told reporters in
Damascus on Thursday.
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