(VOVworld) – Beginning next month, Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi will replace Kofi Annan as special U.N. and Arab League envoy to Syria. He has pledged to prioritize the Syrian people’s interests and spare no effort to help them. Iran says that at the Non - Aligned Movement Summit to be held in Teheran later this month, it will propose an initiative to bring the conflict to the end. But recent developments in Syria have dampened public optimism. Anh Huyen reports:

Buildings were destroyed after an air strike on August 17 in Aleppo (Photo: AP)

On Monday, rebel forces in Syria shot down a Syrian military helicopter that had been firing on insurgent positions in Damascus’ outskirt district of Jobar. Syrian opposition forces said bombing and helicopter attacks against outlying areas of the capital are occurring more regularly and that the Monday air raid alone claimed at least 60 lives.

Why has this war lasted so long? There seems to be no end in sight for the 17 – month fight. A 6-point plan by UN special representative Kofi Annan had no chance of success. Annan pursued an agenda that neither the international community nor Syria’s administration could agree to. In repeated interviews, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has refused to give up power, while the rebel forces insist that al-Assad resign before they’ll even come to the negotiating table. Strong support by Western countries and the Gulf Cooperation Council for the Free Syrian Army has made the crisis in Syria increasingly tangled.

French President Francois Hollande announced on Monday that Paris will recognize a Syrian provisional government as soon as the council is set up by Syrian opposition forces. Hollande also confirmed that France is working with its partners on the possible establishment of buffer zones within Syria to receive people displaced by the conflict and prevent them flooding over the borders into neighboring states. This is an initiative proposed by Turkey. Once such zones are set up, a deeper intervention by the West into Syria’s internal affairs will begin with a scenario similar to what has been happening in Libya. To date, encouraged by the West, more than 40 officials including the Prime Minister have fled President al-Assad’s administration.  

The Syrian opposition forces have announced they now control 60% of Aleppo, which is close to the Turkish borders. But there is concern that once al-Assad is driven into a corner, his government is likely to resort to chemical weapons. Syria has 1,000 tons of chemical weapons stored in 50 towns and villages including mustard gas and sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent.