Jeenah on Syria - SAfm

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Created on Thursday, 15 March 2012 20:07

Written by Na'eem

AMEC Executive Director Na'eem Jeenah was interviewed by national South African radio station SAfm for the PMLive show on 15 March 2012. Jeenah was asked about the situation in Syria one year after the uprisings in that country began. He said unless there would be a political solution proposed that would be acceptable to both the regime and the opposition, there seems to be no end in sight to the crisis. He commented that the Kofi Annan mission seems doome to failure, having been rejected by both the Syrian regime and the opposition Syrian National Council. Asked who a possible mediator could be, Jeenah responded that the Arab League, United States, European Union, Russia, China and the United Nations were in some way or another 'tainted' and a possible acceptable mediator might be the IBSA group - India, Brazil and South Africa.

Kofi Annan's mission to Syria

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Created on Tuesday, 13 March 2012 10:11

Written by Na'eem

Na'eem Jeenah, AMEC's executive director, was interviewed on 'Morning Live' on the South African national radio station SAfm, on 13 March 2012 about the mission of former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan to Syria. Annan has been jointly appointed as envoy to Syria by the United Nations and the Arab League. Annan met Syrian president Bashar al-Asad twice over the weekend (10-11 March) and also had meetings with members of Damascus-based opposition groups. He was due to meet the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) in Turkey on Tuesday, 13 March. Jeenah noted that the situation in Syria was getting worse and bloodier, as gruesome incidents in Homs over the weekend indicated.

Asked about the SNC's comment that Annan's visit to Damascus was 'useless', Jeenah said that if one side in a conflict regarded the role of a mediator as 'useless', that brought into question the entire mission of the mediator. He added that, in fact, the potential effectiveness of Annan's mission was open to question from the time he was appointed in this position.

Asked why the 'international community' was not doing anything about the Syrian crisis, Jeenah said there was no unified 'international community' and that different parts of the international community believed they were 'doing something'. Russia, China, the Arab League, the European Union, for example, he said, all believed that they were making proposals for a resolution to the crisis. Part of the problem, he added, was that the 'international community' was 'as fractured as the Syrian opposition' was.