Tag: Lakhdar Brahimi

Sunday Smack

Hope everybody had a great weekend! After an incredibly grey and stormy week in Hungary with a taste of Yvette, summer is expected to arrive next week. And I can’t wait. Here’s a few posts of what I read last week. Syrian Peace Envoy Finally Admits Defeat I tend to agree with SG Ban that it is not Brahimi’s failure. I’d like to think that the problem is not unsolvable after all, even though two high profile diplomats have given up trying already. Then again, I don’t blame neither of them. EU’s Newest Sanction Targets: Crimean Firms, Not Russian Ones…

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Syria: UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi resigns

Syria: UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi resigns Amidst an international community “hopelessly divided” over how to end more than three years of bloodshed in Syria, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced that he has regretfully accepted the resignation of Lakhdar Brahimi, the Joint United Nations-League of Arab States Special Representative on the crisis.

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First round of Syria peace talks will end tomorrow with little headway

First round of Syria peace talks will end tomorrow with little headway After a “tense but rather promising” meeting today between representatives of the Syrian Government and the main opposition group on reaching a political end to the country’s three-year-civil war, the United Nations/Arab League mediator said that the first round of talks will end tomorrow with no serious breakthrough or “any real change in position” of either side.

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Syria Completes Destruction Activities to Render Inoperable Chemical Weapons Production Facilities and Mixing/Filling Plants

Syria Completes Destruction Activities to Render Inoperable Chemical Weapons Production Facilities and Mixing/Filling Plants “The Joint Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – United Nations Mission confirmed today that the government of the Syrian Arab Republic has completed the functional destruction of critical equipment for all of its declared chemical weapons production facilities and mixing/filling plants, rendering them inoperable."  The news came after yesterday UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi held talks with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, where the Syrian leader kept insisting there is no need for international intervention in his country, the Syrian people will decide on peace…

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Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process – C-SPAN Video Library

Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process – C-SPAN Video Library Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Martti Ahtisaari of Finland and former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi talked about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. They discussed the topic earlier in the day with Secretary of State Kerry. Former President Carter acknowledged that conditions are far more difficult now than during his presidency. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, also spoke about Syria. He refused to characterize either the Syrian regime or the opposition as ‘winning’ in their civil war but said that there can be no military victory but there must be a…

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Sunday Smack

A busy week behind us again, unfortunately with more bad news than good. Even the weather took a worrying turn in many parts of the world. Starting with the hurricane in Oklahoma to all the extreme weather issues across Western Europe these days. Can we blame it on climate change or not? Of course I’ll leave this discussion to those who are experts of the topic while I’ll remain on more familiar grounds. On world affairs: Will We Witness the End of Peacekeeping in the Golan Heights? Recent exchanges of fire between Syria and Israel question the future of a not properly armed…

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United Nations News Centre – At General Assembly, Ban and UN-Arab League envoy call for greater efforts to resolve crisis in Syria

United Nations News Centre – At General Assembly, Ban and UN-Arab League envoy call for greater efforts to resolve crisis in Syria Announcing his plans to visit displaced Syrians in refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged greater efforts to help bring an end to the conflict in the Middle Eastern country as well as greater support for the envoy tasked with that mission. “We can only succeed if all sides take the necessary steps, and if there are converging actions by the international community, in particular the Security Council,” Mr. Ban told an informal meeting of the General…

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