UN's Syria envoy to step down
The United Nations envoy for Syria on Wednesday announced he will step down at the end of November after more than four years in the key post as UN efforts to end the seven-year war show no sign of a breakthrough.
"I will myself be moving on as of the last week of November," Staffan de Mistura told the UN Security Council during a meeting on the crisis in Syria.
The Italian-Swedish diplomat, who is the UN's third Syria envoy in six years, said he was leaving for "purely personal reasons," citing the need to give his family "a little bit of attention" after a long stint in the demanding post.
De Mistura will be traveling to Damascus next week to push for the creation of a committee to agree on a post-war constitution for Syria that would pave the way to elections.
The Syria government is objecting to the UN-led effort to include civil society representatives, religious and tribal leaders, experts and women on the panel, the envoy said.
Meanwhile, the head of the humanitarian taskforce for the war-ravaged country yesterday said he would also resign next month.
"I am also leaving at the end of November," Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva.
De Mistura was appointed UN envoy for Syria in July 2014 after veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi resigned following the failure of peace talks in Geneva.
Brahimi spent two years in the position, stepping in after former UN chief Kofi Annan quit just six months into the role. Annan had described the Syria envoy's job as "mission impossible."
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