There is also a natural and very, very strong empathy with the underdog, with people who have suffered, people who have been pushed around by foreigners in particular, but also by their own people.

I will not say who was my first choice and who was not my first choice. Though the council was in fact dissolved early some of its members will have major roles in the new government. On 5 February Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon appointed Brahimi to lead a panel investigation on United Nations staff security in the wake of the December 11 2007 Algiers bombings.

He is currently a distinguiLakhdar Brahimid senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a governing board member of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Lakhdar Brahimi (Algerian pronunciation: [læxdˤɑr bræhiːmi]; Arabic: الأخضر الإبراهيمى‎; born 1 January 1934) is an Algerian United Nations envoy and advisor and since August 2012 the United Nations peace envoy to Syria. He is also a member of The Elders a group of world leaders working for global peace.