"I know you are eagerly awaiting the announcement of the appointment of a successor to Lakhdar Brahimi," Ban said at a press conference here on the current developments in the Middle East. Consultations are still continuing and I hope to be in a position to make an announcement very soon."
Ban is expected to announce the appointment on Wednesday afternoon of veteran Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura to succeed Brahimi, a renown Algerian diplomat and senior UN staff, who resigned on May 31 after nearly two years of failed efforts to bring peace and stability to Syria.
"There are many players in the (consultation) process, I want to get every player on board," the secretary-general said.
Brahimi had long threatened to step down, just as his predecessor -- former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, did in 2012. Annan resigned after six months as the joint special representative of the United Nations and Arab League on Syria.
- De Mistura if appointed by the secretary-general, will be the third international envoy for Syria since the Syrian crisis broke out in March 2011. The appointment shows the strong UN determination to put an end to the ongoing civil war in Syria, where more than 150,000 people have been reportedly killed.
In May, de Mistura was appointed president of the board of governors for the European Institute for Peace, an independent foundation based in Brussels, Belgium.
Born in Sweden, de Mistura, 67, holds Italian-Swedish nationality. He is also a former deputy Italian foreign minister.
The United Nations says that 10.8 million Syrians are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, nearly half of Syria's population of 22 million, including 6.6 million children. At present, there are 2.9 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, such as Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
(Xinhua) - (cntv.cn)
10/7/14
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