UN Syria envoy to base in Cairo

The deputy UN secretary- general, Jan Eliasson, said here Tuesday that the joint UN/Arab League representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is going to be based in Cairo, Egypt, beginning next week to promote his good offices on the Syrian crisis. Eliasson made the statement at a press conference here to brief the press on the just-concluded General Debate of the UN General Assembly, which began a week ago. "Lakhdar Brahimi will work from Cairo from next week onward so that he is in proximity of the region and he will work very closely with his Egyptian colleagues. We take that seriously," he said. Brahimi, who has been in New York over the past week, met with high-level officials attending the General Debate. The former Algerian foreign minister and UN trouble shooter used to base his work at UN Headquarters here. Brahimi is tasked with brokering a diplomatic solution to the conflict after replacing former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who stepped down as the UN-Arab League joint special envoy in August in frustration after his six-point peace plan went up in smoke due to incessant violence.