UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi will step down on May 31, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday, blaming an international deadlock over how to end the three-year civil war in the country for hampering his bid to broker peace.
The veteran Algerian diplomat had long threatened to leave, just as his predecessor, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, did in 2012. Annan quit after six months as the U.N. and Arab League joint special representative on Syria, slamming the U.N. Security Council for failing to unite behind his efforts.