UNITED NATIONS: Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura is to be named the new UN mediator for Syria on Wednesday, taking on the Herculean task of finding a political solution to the devastating civil war, diplomats said.
He is to replace Lakhdar Brahimi who resigned in May after two rounds of peace talks yielded no concrete results and as the conflict escalated into a fourth year, killing more than 162,000.
His nomination has been confirmed to members of the Security Council and one UN official said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would announce his appointment later on Wednesday.
De Mistura would represent the United Nations and "have an Arab deputy," one diplomat said, but a deputy has not yet been named.
Brahimi, a well-respected and seasoned Algerian diplomat with extensive mediation experience, was joint representative of both the United Nations and Arab League to Syria.
Ban warned only last month that the new mediator would not have a magic wand to resolve the conflict and de Mistura now looks set to inherit a job many diplomats consider flat-out impossible.
Born in Sweden, the 67-year-old holds Italian-Swedish nationality. He is a former deputy Italian foreign minister and has worked for the United Nations for more than three decades.
He has extensive experience in conflict zones. He was UN special representative to Iraq from 2007-2009 and special representative to Afghanistan from 2010-2011.
He has also held UN posts in Somalia, Sudan and the Balkans, and was a deputy director at the UN World Food Program in 2009-10.
He speaks six languages, including English, French and German. His mastery of Arabic has been described by the UN as colloquial.
The UN approach to the political process, concentrating on putting in place a transitional government, has hit an impasse, not least with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad re-elected in June.
It took all the considerable skills of Brahimi, who served as the envoy from August 2012 until May 2014, to coax Assad and Syria's fractious opposition to the negotiating table in Geneva.
But talks broke down after only two rounds in January and February amid bitter recriminations.
Brahimi's own predecessor, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, stepped down after barely six months, frustrated by international divisions over Syria.
Assad's June 3 re-election was heavily criticized by Western powers but Damascus has scored some military successes and the conflict has spread to Iraq where jihadists have declared an Islamic caliphate incorporating territory in both countries. The humanitarian situation has also become considerably worse.
The United Nations says 10.8 million Syrians are in urgent need of humanitarian aid -- nearly half of Syria's population of 22 million -- including 6.6 million children.
There are 2.9 million Syrian refugees posing a drain on meager resources in neighboring countries.
A UN Security Council resolution on aid access has yet to be enforced on the ground and 4.7 million Syrians are in areas that are "difficult or impossible" for humanitarian workers to reach.
All but paralyzing the international response have been deep animosity on the Security Council between the Western powers and Russia, a staunch defender of its ally in Damascus.
On June 20, Ban outlined a six-point agenda demanding an immediate end to the violence, unfettered humanitarian access and a principled and united international response.
He also urged the Security Council to impose an arms embargo in a rallying cry for action to end the civil war.
He also conceded that Assad's re-election had been a further blow to the political process. Ban spent considerable time searching for a new mediator, hoping for someone competent but also acceptable to the main players.
A number of names had circulated in connection with the job, including former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd and Sigrid Kaag, who oversaw the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons, one of the few international successes to emerge from the crisis.
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