Diplomats: Staffan De Mistura Is New Syria Envoy

UNITED NATIONS-Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura has been chosen by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to replace Lakhdar Brahimi as the international point man on Syria, diplomats said Wednesday.

According to the Associated Press, the diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an expected announcement, said de Mistura will be the U.N. envoy — not the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, as Brahimi was — and will have an Arab deputy.

Ban told reporters late Wednesday that an announcement is “very close” but he needed “to get everybody on board.” The diplomats said they expect de Mistura to be officially named on Thursday.

Brahimi resigned May 31 after nearly two years of failed efforts to end crisis in Syria. He followed in the footsteps of his longtime friend, former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, who resigned from the same job in August 2012.

Mistura is facing an immense challenge as he tries to succeed where Brahimi and Annan failed.

Born in Stockholm, de Mistura had a 40-year career with the United Nations and recently served as deputy foreign minister in the Italian government headed by Mario Monti.

De Mistura worked for various U.N. agencies and served as the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan in 2010-11 and in Iraq from 2007-09, and as the secretary-general’s personal representative for southern Lebanon from 2001-04.

H.M