The new international peace envoy to Syria gave a bleak assessment of the situation in the country and the prospects for peace.
The Los Angeles Times reports that in comments to reporter Lakhdar Brahimi, special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, said the situation in Syria was "very, very grim."
The Times added:
"The situation in Syria, Brahimi said, 'is extremely bad, and getting worse.' The violence there 'is a threat to the region and a threat to peace and security in the world.'
"The envoy, who spoke after a closed-door meeting with the U.N. Security Council, said he had no 'full plan for the moment,' but that he did have 'a few ideas.' He declined to elaborate, but said: 'I think that we will find an opening in the not too distant future.'
"Brahimi characterized as disappointing the fractious nature of the Syrian opposition, which is divided both politically and militarily and unable to launch a united front."
If you remember, the previous envoy, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, quit from the position after his peace plan sputtered.
The AP reports that Brahimi went on to describe the stalemate in the country as "extremely difficult" with no short-term solution in sight. But it wasn't all gloom.
"Paradoxically now that I have found out a little more about what is happening in the country and the region, I think that we will find an opening in the not too distant future," he said. ""I refuse to believe that reasonable people do not see that you cannot go backward, that you cannot go back to the Syria of the past."
As Brahimi gave that assessment, reports The New York Times, the government of President Bashar Assad unleashed a new attack on Aleppo that "included the use of warplanes to bomb targets on the outskirts" of the city.
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