In this interview with Al-Jazeera English Diplomatic Editor James Bays, Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani discusses the failure of the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to make any headway with an initiative to negotiate a ceasefire in Aleppo. Based on his own personal experience with the mission, Rabbani highlights the absence of preparatory work, and concludes that the UN special envoy was operating out of his depth and lacked the background required for the complexity of the task. These challenges were compounded by a cronyism in which vital tasks were assigned to staff members incapable of discharging them. De Mistura’s central role in the failure of the Aleppo ceasefire initiative therefore raises fundamental questions about his new plan to lay the basis for a political process to resolve the Syria conflict.