This is a bit of an odd one, but the source is an interesting (and controversial) Danish politician – Naser Khader. Khader has represented three different parties in the Danish Parliament, and now represents the Conservative People’s Party, the party of Denmark’s foreign minister Lene Espersen.
On his blog on the website of the Danish newspaper Berlingske he states:
Men jeg mener, at EU og især EU’s udenrigs Cathrine Asthon har svigtet. Derfor foreslår jeg, at EU udpeger en særlig Syrien-udsending, hvis ansvar det er at holde øje med regimet, og at det bliver David Milliband, Englands tidligere udenrigsminister.
Translated this means:
But I believe that the EU and especially the EU’s foreign Cathrine Asthon have failed. Therefore I propose that the EU appoints a special envoy Syria, whose responsibility it is to keep an eye on the regime, and that it will be David Miliband, Britain’s former foreign minister.
Khader’s mother is Syrian, and the suggestion is put forward in a blog entry written while Khader is travelling in Syria. How Khader has come up with this idea I don’t know, and all countries are struggling to work out what to do about Syria, so Ashton’s ineffectiveness does not stand out for me.
Anyway, it’s an interesting suggestion and – in English anyway – you heard it here first!