"If people think that I can help, who am I to say no, that I'm not interested?" Lakhdar Brahimi responded when asked about taking up the challenge of brokering peace in Syria.
Brahimi officially takes up the job of special Syria peace envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League at the beginning of September. His predecessor, Kofi Annan, resigns out of frustration after his efforts did not achieve even a ceasefire. Violence has only continued to escalate during the 17 months of the continuing crisis.
In an interview with Yle's A-studio reporter Krista Taubert, Brahimi said that he had already spoken with some Syrians and listened to their views.
"There always is a chance for peace...There is always a common area on which people don't know that they are standing. There is a chance of expanding that area... you have building blocks that are scattered all over the place. It is how you are going to help the interested parties, not yourself, to move those building blocks and put them in the right order," said Brahimi.
Not Syria's internal struggle
Brahimi intends to listen carefully to all possible parties both inside and outside of Syria that have ties to the conflict. Soon he will be be meeting with representatives of the UN Security Council, the great powers and Syria's neighbours. So far, Russia and China have blocked all of the resolutions against Syria in put forward in the Security Council.
Brahimi stressed that this is a matter of a regional and international conflict, even though the civil war is taking place within Syria's borders.
No superman, no hero
In the Yle interview, Brahimi says that above all a broker needs humility. He does not consider himself a superman nor a hero and looks down on no one. He revealed that over the past few weeks he has struggled with conflicting emotions, both vanity and humility, when pondering his mission.
"Vanity because you think you can do something, perhaps. Maybe there is a chance in a million that you've got to take. The humility is, who am I to say no, if people think that I can help?"
An excerpt from the Yle video interview with Lakhdar Brahimi can be seen here.