WordBulletin

World Bulletin/News Desk

The new international mediator on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will need consensus in the U.N. Security Council if he is to succeed in his mission, Turkey's foreign minister said on Friday.

The United Nations earlier confirmed that Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat, would replace former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the international mediator on Syria as the 17-month-old conflict slides deeper into civil war.

"Brahimi's appointment is significant but the U.N. Security Council needs to back him up in unity ...," Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference in Ankara.

"If we don't want his mission to be unsuccessful like Annan's, we should form a consensus at the Security Council and not allow any delaying tactics," Davutoglu said.

Annan, who is stepping down at the end of August, has said his Syria peace plan was hampered by a divided and deadlocked U.N. Security Council.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who visited a camp in southern Turkey housing refugees from Syria earlier on Friday, echoed Davutoglu's comments at the joint news conference.

"We have to work on a new structure to replace (President Bashar al-Assad's) regime, and this transformation needs to happen under control," Fabius said.

"We don't want chaos after Assad and this requires cooperation from all parties involved."