[An Nahar] Peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Thursday the deadly conflict in Syria was getting worse as he arrived on his first official trip aimed at ending nearly 18 months of violence."We came to Syria to hold meetings with our Syrian brothers because there is a big crisis, and I think it is getting worse," the official SANA news agency quoted the U.N. and Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy as saying on arrival at Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
airport.
"I think everybody agrees the need to stop the bloodshed and to restore harmony, and we hope that we will succeed" in the mission, said Brahimi, who was appointed two weeks ago to replace former envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...after the failure of his six-point peace plan for Syria.
Brahimi spoke after rebels were reported to have advanced into a key district of the northern city of Aleppo
...For centuries, Aleppo was Greater Syria's largest city and the Ottoman Empire's third, after Constantinople and Cairo. Although relatively close to Damascus in distance, Aleppans regard Damascenes as country cousins...
, where activists said at least 11 people were killed in a strike by a helicopter gunship.
"During his visit to Syria, Brahimi will hold talks with the government and with representatives of the Syrian opposition and civil society," said a statement from his front man Ahmad Fawzi, who had previously announced the veteran diplomat from Algeria would meet Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
Brahimi was to meet Foreign Minister Walid Muallem later on Thursday, an official Syrian source said.