Syria Says Brahimi to Visit Damascus Soon

Newly appointed international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is due to arrive in Syria soon, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said on Sunday.

"We will listen to him and he will listen to us," Makdissi told NBN television. "The issue is not one-sided."

Veteran diplomat Brahimi was appointed to replace former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan as the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria after Annan's six-point peace plan failed to stop the bloodshed in the country.

In an exclusive interview with NBN, Makdissi blamed the international community for the ongoing conflict.

"The issue is not personal, and has nothing to do with the envoy," said Makdissi.

"We tried Mr. Kofi Annan. And all the reasons that led to his initiative's unhappy ending were not Syrian. The main reason was a lack of international consensus."

Echoing the regime's persistent blaming of Western countries for the crisis, Makdissi went on to blame "powerful U.N. Security Council members (for) discouraging dialogue in Syria."

He also failed to recognize the existence of any popular uprising demanding change, and instead told NBN: "We want change for the country and we want to bring it out of this crisis."

More than 26,000 people have been killed in violence in Syria since the outbreak of an uprising against President Bashar Assad in March last year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.