Assad's envoy pledges support for UN mission

BEIJING - The Syrian government supported the UN role in Syria and any "formula" it wanted to employ, President Bashar al-Assad's special envoy, Bouthaina Shaaban, said here Monday.

"We support the UN role and we express support for the new envoy who is to be appointed by the UN," Shaaban told Xinhua, referring to veteran Algerian diplomat al-Akhdar al-Ibrahimi, who succeeds Kofi Annan as the new UN envoy to Syria.

"And we said we support if the UN wants to change the modality of the mission and we support any formula that the UN wants, like having a political office or a different modality," she said.

"The Syria foreign ministry sent a letter to the UN General Secretary saying that we support the steps of the UN," said the envoy.

Shaaban, who has served as Assad's political and media adviser since 2008, stressed international coordination as a cornerstone for the UN mission in Syria to succeed.

"If you notice what al-Akhdar al-Ibrahimi said, that, in order to succeed, he needs the international community to agree on a course of action in Syria, and I agree with that, that the international community should agree on supporting mediation and supporting a political solution," Shaaban said.

However, the problem was that some Western and Arab nations were apparently "destabilizing Syria by providing money and armaments to armed groups who committed the most horrible crimes," although they pledged support for Annan's peace plan, she said.

These countries included "Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey," Shaaban said.

She urged other countries to "truly support the UN mission," like Russia, China, Iran and the Syrian government, to make it a success.

There is no clear end in sight for the worsening Syrian crisis, now in its 18th month. Shaaban blamed "foreign support" for armed opposition groups for the continued violence in the turmoil-hit Middle East country.

"There is a lot of money and a lot of armaments that are pouring into this group against the Syrian people, the Syrian army and Syrian government," she said.

The United Nations on Friday confirmed that al-Ibrahimi would become the new international mediator on Syria, as the country's bloody conflict slid deeper into civil war and refugees fled to neighboring countries in increasing numbers.

A day earlier, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his country would welcome al-Ibrahimi's appointment, saying "we want to preserve the presence of the UN in Syria."

Annan's resignation came against the backdrop of his failure to guarantee commitments from the other parties, al-Moallem said Thursday, referring to the armed opposition and countries that support them.

He said Syria was still committed to Annan's six-point peace plan, adding that a one-sided commitment was not enough.