Despite the failure of the truce between the Syrian regime and the rebels initiated by the UN to the Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi intends to continue his mission by paying this week visits to China and Russia to discuss the situation. In Beijing and Moscow, the former Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs will again try to convince leaders to give up their objection for an action by the UN Security Council.
Brahimi will be back in November to the Security Council with new proposals to bring President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition to the negotiating table, UN diplomats have said. The envoy "will return with some ideas for action by the Security Council at the beginning of next month," a senior diplomat said. The diplomat said: "The political process can not start until Assad and the opposition are so beaten that they have no other choice. They are not there yet, but Brahimi has some ideas ".
Little information has filtered through the method Lakhdar Brahimi intends to use. But behind the scenes, the UN is developing plans to rapidly implement a peacekeeping or observation force if a truce was agreed. It also has relief teams and supplies ready to be sent to the cities of Aleppo, Idlib and Homs.
