Kofi Annan to be Syria crisis envoy
AFP
UNITED NATIONS- The United Nations on Thursday named its former leader Kofi Annan to act as a special envoy on the Syria crisis aiming to halt the bloodshed.
Annan will be a joint envoy of the UN and Arab League and "provide good offices aimed at bringing an end to all violence and human rights violations, and promoting a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis," said a statement released by the two bodies.
A deputy envoy from the Arab region is to be named soon, the two added in the statement.
More than 7,500 people have been killed in 11 months of protests against President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and there is growing international pressure for an initiative seeking to end the murderous government crackdown.
Annan, now 73, served two terms as UN secretary general from 1997 through 2006. After standing down he was called in as a mediator to end deadly unrest in Kenya in 2008.
The Ghanaian will now act under a mandate set out by a UN General Assembly resolution passed last week and Arab League resolutions on Syria, the UN and Arab League chiefs said.
Annan "will consult broadly and engage with all relevant interlocutors within and outside Syria in order to end the violence and the humanitarian crisis," said the statement.
He will seek to "facilitate a peaceful Syrian-led and inclusive political solution that meets the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people through a comprehensive political dialogue between the Syrian government and the whole spectrum of the Syrian opposition," it added.
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