UN Secretary General: Ibrahimi to Meet President Assad during Syria Visit

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the new UN envoy to Syria al-Akhdar al-Ibrahimi would meet President Bashar al-Assad during a soon visit to Damascus.

“Special representative Ibrahimi is soon going to have a meeting with Syrian authorities including president Assad, and he has already been engaged with the key stakeholders,” Ban told a news conference in Bern, without providing more details about the highly anticipated visit.

Ibrahimi, replacing former UN chief Kofi Annan who quit over the lack of international support for his six-point plan, arrived in Cairo on Sunday.

The envoy, who has acknowledged he is on a “very difficult mission”, said Monday he would travel to Damascus in a few days to meet with Syrian officials, but had been unclear on whether he would meet Assad himself.

Ban meanwhile added Tuesday that he understood that many are frustrated in the face of the UN Security Council’s “paralysis” in dealing with the crisis in Syria.
But “while we may be frustrated and troubled by not being able to address the situation in Syria, which has reached intolerable circumstances,” he said.

“We should not be overly pessimistic about the strength and the commitment of the international community, especially the international organizations.”