Brahimi: Syria conflict ‘could set region ablaze’

BEIRUT/CAIRO: Syria’s 19-month conflict could set the entire region ablaze, international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told reporters in Lebanon yesterday.
“This crisis cannot remain confined within Syrian territory,” Brahimi said. “Either it is solved, or it gets worse... and sets (the region) ablaze. A truce for (the Muslim holiday of) Eid Al-Adha would be a microscopic step on the road to solving the Syria crisis.”
Brahimi called on Monday for a temporary cease-fire during the four-day Eid Al-Adha holiday starting on October 26.
“The Syrian people, on both sides, are burying some 100 people a day,” he said.
“Can we not ask that this toll falls for this holiday? This will not be a happy holiday for the Syrians, but we should at least strive to make it less sad.”
Brahimi said that “if the Syrian government accepts, and I understand there is hope, and if the opposition accepts,” a truce would be a step “toward a more global cease-fire, the withdrawal of heavy artillery, a stop to the flow of foreign weapons, and then toward a political solution in Syria.”
His tour to countries playing influential roles in the crisis has taken him to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran as well as Iraq and Egypt.
Brahimi said he would end his tour in Damascus, but did not say when.
“We are in discussions with all the parties to stop the bloodbath and to (ensure that) problems in Syria are solved by the Syrians themselves,” Brahimi said, after meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati.
“Everyone says the bloodbath in Syria is very dangerous, and that it needs to stop, but each side blames the other” for violence.
“We need to see how pull Syria out of the abyss it has fallen into.”
Brahimi said he was following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Kofi Annan, in dealing with “this grave issue,” as well as the Geneva accords reached on June 30 by an action group on Syria.
Meanwhile, Arab League chief Nabil Elarabi yesterday called on the Syrian government and its armed opposition to agree on the Eid truce.
A statement from the Arab bloc said Elarabi called on “the Syrian government and armed Syrian opposition to respond to calls for a truce and stop violence and military action during the days of Eid.”
He also asked for international support for a truce during the four-day holiday.
There are near daily clashes in Syria close to the Lebanese border between rebels and fighters loyal to Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime, local people report.
The fighting is taking place in Syrian villages inhabited mainly by Lebanese, in an area where the common border is not well defined and where many villages actually straddle the frontier.
“Our villages are being attacked by rebels who want to enter, and we defend ourselves,” a resident of Zeita, whose village has seen frequent clashes, said yesterday.
Clashes are taking place “in some 20 Shiite villages in (the central Syrian province of) Homs, which are inhabited by some 30,000 people,” he added.
“Hezbollah transports weapons and ammunition across the border in ambulances, day and night,” said Fahd Al-Masri, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army’s joint command.
“They take the international road, without stopping at the border post.”