U.N. Envoy's Outlook for Syria Is Not Good
U.N. envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi isn't mincing words when it comes to how bad it is in Syria right now. It's already terrible and it's only getting worse.
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"The situation in Syria is bad, very, very bad, and it is getting worse, and the pace of deterioration is increasing," Brahimi told reporters Sunday. "The problem is that both sides aren't speaking to one another," he said. "This is where help is needed from outside." Brahimi has not been able to bring any progress towards ending the conflict in Syria since taking over from Kofi Annan. Bashar al-Assad has become a recluse in his palace while rebels try to avoid getting attacked with poisonous gases. To his credit, though, he's making a renewed push for a peace deal. He was recently in Damascus to meet with Assad, and then he traveled to Russia and Egypt to try and bring them to the table, too.
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To further drive home Brahimi's points, according to opposition groups Saturday was the deadliest day in the almost two-year-old conflict so far:
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Opposition groups that monitor the death toll said as many as 400 people — more than double the typical daily death toll — were killed Saturday. About half of them were civilians slain in an alleged mass killing carried out by government troops at a petrochemical university in central Syria, opposition groups reported.
So what happens if there's no solution to the conflict? Really bad things. Brahimi predicted the death toll would double, topping 100,000 total deaths, if the conflict goes for another year. He also thinks the country would descend into anarchy like Somalia. "People are talking about Syria being split into a number of small states ... This is not what will happen. What will happen is Somalization: warlords," he said.
