UN envoy warns spillover of Syrian crisis

Syrias 19-month conflict can set the entire region ablaze, international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi tells reporters in Lebanon.This crisis cannot remain confined within Syrian territory, Brahimi said on Wednesday. Either it is solved, or it gets worse... and sets (the region) ablaze. A truce for (the Muslim holiday of) Eid al-Adha would be a microscopic step on the road to solving the Syria crisis.Brahimi admitted that solving the Syrian crisis was a very, very difficult process, but there was a microscopic chance that a truce may lead to a permanent ceasefire.The Syrian people will not enjoy a happy Eid al-Adha holiday, but they should at least enjoy a truce, he told reporters after talks with Lebanese officials in the capital Beirut.This will be a microscopic chance to lead to a permanent ceasefire, halting the smuggling of arms, and an agreement on a political solution, added Brahimi.He said he was visiting Syrias neighbours to listen to their views on the crisis. He added he would visit Damascus, but did not specify the date.Brahimi’s call for a truce during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls later this month, has fallen on deaf ears in Damascus as state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said the initiative would likely fail because the rebels fighting to topple Bashar Assads regime had no unified leadership to agree to it.Al-Thawra said that the biggest obstacle to the truce was the lack of an authority to sign for the rebels. There is the state, represented by the government and the army on one front, but who is on the other front? the paper asked in an editorial.All international efforts to end Syrias civil war to date have failed. Both rebels and government forces have disregarded previous cease-fires, and the scores of rebel units fighting to topple the regime have no unified leadership.Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdessi said in statement to the state news agency that the government was waiting for Brahimi to come to Damascus to convey to officials there the results of his tour.