Amid crisis, creative diplomat carries a weight that few others could cope with
In July 2014, Staffan de Mistura was enjoying a tranquil summer on the Italian island of Capri when he received an offer for what might be considered one of the toughest jobs in the world.
The Italian-Swedish diplomat has had 40 years’ experience with the United Nations and served as deputy foreign minister in the Italian government led by Mario Monti.
Mr de Mistura was chosen by the UN’s former secretary general Ban Ki-moon to replace Lakhdar Brahimi as the international mediator seeking a peaceful resolution to one of the bloodiest and most complex conflicts of the century, the Syrian civil war.
Mr de Mistura hesitated over Mr Ban’s offer. He felt inclined to turn it down.
“I felt guilty,” he said in August 2014.
Mr Ban had shared with him “very wisely the current situation in Syria, how many dead, how many refugees, the level of horrors”, he said.
A few hours later, Mr de Mistura accepted the job, even though he had promised his family a “normal life”.
Born in Stockholm in 1947 to a Swedish mother and an Italian father, Mr de Mistura graduated from the University of Rome with a degree in political science and development economics. He speaks seven languages, including colloquial Arabic.
The diplomat began his career in 1971 as a World Food Programme project officer in Sudan and has had more than 42 years of humanitarian work experience and 19 overseas missions, largely in conflict zones.
The responsibility of a UN envoy for Syria is tough.
The first two envoys, Kofi Annan and Mr Brahimi, resigned in frustration and disgust.
Mr de Mistura’s predecessor, Mr Brahimi, is a veteran Algerian diplomat who resigned in May 2014 after the failure of the second round of Geneva talks in January and February that year.
The eight rounds of UN-brokered peace talks ended last
Mr de Mistura hesitated over Mr Ban’s offer. He felt inclined to turn it down. A few hours later, he accepted the job
Thursday in Geneva without “real negotiations”.
Mr de Mistura’s peace envoy failed to get the opposition and the Syrian government to engage in direct talks.
The diplomat went so some lengths to point out that the Assad regime had failed to demonstrate the slightest willingness to negotiate.
The United Nations security council remains divided, with Russia backing the Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad, while the US, UK and France are supporting opposition groups led by the Syrian National Coalition.
Throughout his career, Mr de Mistura had developed a reputation as a creative diplomat with strong empathy for civilians and refugees.
“I understood, at 10 years old, the strongest pain for a political refugee is lack of dignity,” said Mr de Mistura, whose father was left stateless after the Second World War.
Mr de Mistura worked for various UN agencies and served as the top UN envoy in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, and in Iraq from 2007 to 2009.
He was the secretary general’s personal representative for southern Lebanon from 2001 to 2004.