Annan says frustrated over slow progress in Syria

International mediator Kofi Annan said on Friday he was “frustrated and impatient” over the continued violence and killing in Syria, and said he wanted to see faster progress towards resolving the crisis.

“I think perhaps I am more frustrated than most of you because I am in the thick of this,” he told journalists after talks in Beirut with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati. “I want to see things move faster,” he said.

Syrian rebels, who agreed to Annan’s April 12 ceasefire plan, have been urging him to declare the plan dead, freeing them from any commitment to the tattered truce. They say President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have not stopped the killing.

Damascus says it wants Annan’s plan to succeed in ending the violence so the 15-month-old crisis can be resolved through political dialogue.

Although refusing to declare the ceasefire a failure, Annan welcomed any further steps from the U.N. Security Council.

“Bold action has to be taken by President Assad in Syria to put real energy into the implementation of the six-point peace plan,” Annan said.

But he also struck a note of optimism, telling reporters in Beirut that the Syria crisis was “not something that can go on forever.”

Up to 300 unarmed U.N. observers have deployed in Syria since the putative ceasefire went into effect as part of Annan’s six-point peace plan, which also stipulated that the army must pull out of towns and cities.

Monitors say more than 13,400 people have been killed across Syria since an anti-regime uprising erupted in March 2011, including nearly 2,300 since April 12.