http://www.smh.com.au/world/violence-erupts-as-un-envoy-arrives-in-syrian-capital-20120914-25xk7.html
Violence erupts as UN envoy arrives in Syrian capital DatemSeptember 15, 2012 Ruth Sherlock Unwelcome ... UN envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi. BEIRUT: Sectarian violence broke out on the fringes of Damascus as Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN's new international envoy to Syria, arrived to take up his ''nearly impossible'' task. As the violence neared the Sayyeda Zainab shrine on Thursday, irate members of the local Shiite community took to the streets to fight members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, activists said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported three killed and 16 wounded in the clashes around the shrine. Religious leaders from Syria's minority Christian sect said the fighting based on ethnic or religious divisions was a product of the protracted war that had gripped the country. ''We have been living together without problems for centuries. Sunnis and Christians would bow to me as I walked through the streets,'' said Gregory Laham, the Catholic Patriarch in Lebanon, who was born in Damascus, the scene of a massacre that claimed more than 300 lives last month. The clashes are the latest evidence that Syria's civil war is rapidly descending into a brutal and intractable internecine conflict. In the coming days, the veteran Algerian diplomat and international peace envoy Mr Brahimi, who replaced Kofi Annan last month, will meet Syrian government officials, including President Bashar al-Assad and members of the opposition in an attempt to rescue the country from further bloodshed. ''We came to Syria to consult with our Syrian brothers,'' Mr Brahimi said on arrival at the airport in Damascus. ''There is a crisis in Syria and I believe it is getting worse.'' In a less conciliatory approach, William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, said during a visit to Iraq that the Damascus regime was ''doomed'' and that it was ''impossible'' for it to survive after committing so many crimes. Telegraph, London Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/violence-erupts-as-un-envoy-arrives-in-syrian-capital-20120914-25xk7.html#ixzz26SkynM2P [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
