Syrian Government Says Cease-Fire Unlikely

Points out the opposition don't have unified leadership

The Syrian government on Wednesday said the international envoy's call for a holiday ceasefire would likely fail because the rebels fighting to topple Bashar Assad's regime have no unified leadership to agree to it.

The envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, had asked Iranian officials to help broker a truce during the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which falls later this month.

But Syria's state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece, said on Wednesday that the biggest obstacle to the truce was the lack of an authority to sign for the rebels.

"There is the state, represented by the government and the Army on one front, but who is on the other front," the paper asked in an editorial.