New UN Envoy to Syria Arrives in Damascus

By Steven Hogg - 10 Sep '14 12:43PM

The new United Nations special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, began his first visit to the country on Tuesday. Mistura, accompanied by his Egyptian deputy Ramzy Ezzedine Ramzy, reached the Syrian capital Damascus by land after crossing from Lebanon. In the visit spanning three days, Mistura will meet top Syrian officials and representatives of the government approved opposition parties, reports Xinhua.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon appointed Mistura as the special envoy to Syria, July 10. He replaces Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned in May after a nearly two-year effort failed to end the civil war in Syria.

Before Brahimi, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan served as the first international envoy to Syria. Annan resigned in 2012 after becoming frustrated with the lack of progress in providing a solution to the conflict.

After visiting Syria, Mistura will begin a series of visits to other countries in the region. He will also travel to many other countries during October after the high level debate in the U.N General Assembly gets over.

Mistura, 67, was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He recently served as deputy foreign minister in the Italian government. According to the Italian Foreign Ministry, Mistura speaks seven languages and also knows colloquial Arabic.

The U.N. envoy's visit comes in the midst of intense fighting between government forces and rebels.

The clashes left two people dead in Damascus and three others were killed in Jaramana, according to state news agency SANA, reports the Times of Israel.

According to the U.N., the civil war in Syria has resulted in the death of 190,000 people. It has also displaced 65 million people from their homeland and almost three million people have sought refuge in neighboring countries.