DAMASCUS, Syria — A Syrian official on Wednesday welcomed the resignation of Lakhdar Brahimi as the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy for Syria, calling for the appointment of a "more objective" mediator.
Fayez Sayegh, a member of parliament and a senior member of President Bashar Assad's ruling Baath Party, described Brahimi as a biased man who interfered in Syria's internal affairs.
Sayegh spoke Wednesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, Syria's capital. It was the first official Syrian reaction to Brahimi's resignation, announced a day earlier by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Brahimi, a veteran, 80-year-old Algerian diplomat known for his patience, tried unsuccessfully for nearly two years to mediate an end to Syria's civil war.
His resignation marks a second failure by the U.N. and the Arab League to end Syria's worsening conflict and highlights the deep divisions among the Syrian parties and key countries on how to restore peace. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan resigned from the same job in August 2012 after failing to broker a cease-fire as the country descended into civil war.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said Wednesday he "deeply regretted" Brahimi's resignation, which he said reflected the failure of the international community — represented by the U.N. Security Council — to assume responsibility to stop the fighting in Syria.
Brahimi recently criticized Assad's intention to hold presidential elections amid the war, saying it would hamper prospects for a political solution that the country so urgently needs. His comments angered the Syrian government, which intends to hold a vote on June 3.
Speaking at the U.N. on Wednesday, Ban said he would appoint a successor to Brahimi but would take time to find "the right person."
Sayegh, the Syrian official, said Brahimi had a habit of interfering in Syrian internal affairs.
"When an international mediator, like Brahimi, intervenes in an affair that is of concern for the Syrian people, this means that he has taken the side of the other party," he said.
"Brahimi was since the very beginning biased," he said, calling on the U.N. to appoint "another mediator who should be more objective."
Syria's conflict began with largely peaceful protests calling for reforms and transformed into an armed uprising and eventually a civil war following a ferocious military crackdown on protesters. More than 150,000 people have died since March 2011, and hundreds of thousands of people have been wounded.
On Wednesday, a Syrian opposition watchdog group said nearly 850 people have died in Syrian government prisons and detentions centers this year, many of them as a result of torture.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they include 15 children and six women.
It said some 18,000 people among those held by the government in the past three years had disappeared, and many were feared dead. The group relies on a wide network of activists on the ground across Syria to document the conflict. The information could not be independently verified.
Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.