Prior to his departure for Damascus, the UN and Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had a meeting with Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi. The talks focused on the peace envoy's difficult task in stopping the bloodshed in Syria. Brahimi disclosed that he was preparing to fly to Damascus in a few days and would insist on having a meeting with the Syrian President. Restoring its influential and leading role in the Arab region and beyond, post-Revolution Egypt has thrown its weight behind regional and international efforts sought for no less than two years now to pressurise Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power and save his people from horrible bloodletting. Al-Assad's obstinacy is threatening to throw his country into a brutal civil war, whose death toll would outnumber the tens of thousands of Syrian people, who have already been killed by al-Assad's troops in quelling the uprising against his regime. In a strong speech he gave to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran last month, President Morsi unveiled an initiative to arrange a cease-fire, the ousting of Bashar al-Assad and the election of a new government. The Egyptian initiative, which received support from different key players in the Syrian crisis, including Tehran, Beijing and Ankara, is giving top priority to the sovereignty and unity of Syrian territory. The Egyptian leader renewed his call for Bashar al-Assad to depart in a speech he gave early this month to the meeting held in the League of Arab States headquarters by Arab foreign ministers. Cairo-led regional and international efforts to end the 40-year rule of al-Assad dynasty in Syria appear to have gained momentum. Signs indicating that the al-Assad regime is drawing its last breath are growing in the international community. Russian deputy foreign minister was quoted by the French newspaper Le Figaro as suggesting that Bashar al-Assad was willing to leave, if the Syrian people elected a new leader. According to the French newspaper, the Russian diplomat told a meeting by Syrian opposition in the French capital that Bashar al-Assad told Moscow he would depart the moment the Syrian people would choose someone else in the presidency. Nonetheless, according to the Russian diplomat the Syrian President suspected that his supporters would face retributive acts by his successor. President Morsi's assurances that Cairo, in collaboration with chief players in the Syrian crisis, was keen to guarantee the unity of Syria and peaceful transfer of power, should persuade the Syrian people to set aside their anxieties over the possibility of the outbreak of civil war after al-Assad's departure.
