See how favorably the resignation of the U.N. and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan was welcomed… Annan announced that he was resigning because of the failure of his mission, and he clearly described that failure as the responsibility of the Syrian regime that was using heavy weapons, helicopters and all kinds of war machines against its people.
Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary-General and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a very important figure whose history is nothing but glorious and honorable in his international endeavors. But the failure in his Syria mission was expected, seeing as the Syrian regime was not willing to listen, right from the very beginning.
Instead, Syria kept making excuses, namely for the need to fight “imported terrorism” and “foreign conspiracies”, so that it could continue the criminal killing its own people, with the support of Russia and China.
Annan’s work was to mediate, and he was obliged to please Russians, who were in favor of his assignment. However, Annan justified his resignation by saying it was the responsibility of the Security Council members – without clearly naming which ones. His statement was ambiguous, leaving to each party the possibility to interpret it as they deemed suitable. Annan’s failure to determine responsibility reflected a lack of courage, even though he is a prestigious and unique figure in the history of the United Nations.
Annan’s six-point plan, somehow still alive despite his resignation, has become meaningless amid scenes of destruction and bombing orchestrated by the Syrian regime. Daraa was the city which onset of such acts, but now, scenes of horror and murder are everywhere in Syria.
Nevertheless, there is a list of candidates to succeed Annan in his mission, including Miguel Angel Moratinos, Amr Moussa, and ElBaradei. They are all figures with great experience in diplomacy, but diplomacy has never been effective with the Syrian regime. And today, it is even less effective than any time before.
There were 133 nations in the U.N. General Assembly in favor of the Saudi plan for Syria, which showed the isolation of Russia and China in their stances. In this context, however, Algeria was also against the Saudi plan in what appears to be an Algerian fear that the people’s protest would find its way to the Algerian territory. As for Lebanon, it has not been keeping an unbiased position; with its current government, it has been working in favor of the Syrian regime, a regime that had committed countless crimes in Lebanon for decades. One hears now that Syrian refugees in Lebanon are deported to their country or that the Avaaz campaigns director in the Arab world, Syrian activist Wissam Tarif, was arrested in Beirut International Airport, banned from travel after his passport was confiscated … and they are all shameful acts by the Lebanese government.
The Syrian regime has declared the war on its own people and most of the international community. And it’s trying to drag the region into its own war while agitating its allies in Lebanon with Iranian support, to keep expanding the scale of killings. However, the regime will soon end, and no matter how supportive Iran and Russia get, their bets will soon to lose. The world shall rise any minute now and put an end to the Syrian regime, just like it did with Qaddafi’s.
Meanwhile, miseries and crimes are escalating in Syria, but the Syrian people’s courage and resistance are worth a standing ovation, and they shall soon defeat the black history of Assad and his team. One will never forget him standing beside his Iranian counterpart claiming that nothing would ever shake his regime, in what has become one of many famous ruthless comments in defense of his people’s suppression and killing. The brave Syrian people shall never forgive such persons.
(The writer is a columnist with Al Hayat where this article was first published on Aug. 8, 2012.)
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