United Nations Radio

In order to succeed, conflict mediators must engage all parties to the conflict, and they must be supported by the UN Security Council and backed the UN organization as a whole.

These are the two principles that veteran UN diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi emphasized in his address to a high-level Security Council debate on mediation and the settlement of disputes. Mr. Brahimi, who led the Bonn peace talks on Afghanistan in 2001, now heads the UN's independent security review. He said impossible odds are generally faced by all mediation efforts.

"If a political deal is reached easily and without painful compromises by all sides, one should not ask if it will unravel, but when."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, also addressing the meeting, called on the Council and all member states to invest more in the UN's mediation capacity, which is necessary for effective peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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