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New UN envoy says Syrian people will be ’first masters’

24 August 2012 19:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The new UN-Arab League envoy on the Syria conflict, Lakdhar Brahimi, said Friday that the Syrian people will be his "first masters" as he started talks with UN leaders, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

Brahimi, who will officially take over from Kofi Annan as mediatior on September 1, has already been criticized by some Syrian opposition groups for not saying that President Bashar al-Assad must stand down.

Speaking at the start of talks with UN leader Ban Ki-moon, Brahimi said the Syrian people "will be our first masters. We will consider their interests above and before anyone else. We will try to help as much as we can, we will not spare any effort."

Ban said Brahimi had a "crucial task to bring peace and stability, promotion of human rights in Syria."

The meeting with Ban was the former Algerian foreign minister’s first official engagement since being named to the post on August 14.

He is to spend a week in New York holding talks with UN political, humanitarian and other officials to set up his mission, officials said.

Kofi Annan resigned from the post complaining at the lack of international support for his efforts to implement a six point peace plan in Syria. The UN Security Council is seriously split over Syria. Russia and China have blocked three resolutions on the conflict that could have led to sanctions against Assad.