Former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi is expected to be appointed as the new UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, replacing Kofi Annan, who will officially step down from this position on August 31. Brahimi, 78 years old, has held a long series of high-profile diplomatic posts in the past. Before serving as Algeria’s Foreign Minister between 1991 and 1993, he was an Arab League envoy to Lebanon in the late 1980s. He was later appointed UN envoy to Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks and to Iraq after the 2003 US-led war. The final decision on Brahimi’s appointment will be announced at the General Assembly’s session next Thursday. The UN is now focusing on defining the new envoy’s role and the UN’s operations in Syria in the future, including its mandate and whether to continue implementing Annan’s six-point peace plan.