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| Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan, Gen. Robert Mood and Sergei Lavrov |
After writing, reading, re-reading and mulling
over my preceding post -- “Minutes
of Assad-Annan new truce deal” -- I thought Kofi Annan’s title should be
changed from Joint
Special Envoy of the UN and Arab League for Syria to Joint Special Envoy of the
Russian Federation and Islamic Republic of Iran for bailing out Bashar
al-Assad.
Judging from editorial
comments in the regional press, my opinion is shared by many.
I counted at least six
columnists today questioning Annan’s approach, job performance and mandate.
One of them, Farmaz
Hussein, writing for the
first daily Arab independent on-line newspaper Elaph, wonders bluntly: “Is
Annan a diplomat or an opportunist?”
Another, Hassan
Haidar, writing for the pan-Arab
daily al-Hayat, believes “Annan overstepped
his mandate.”
A third, Rajeh el-Khoury,
writing for Lebanon’s independent newspaper an-Nahar,
accuses the special envoy of closing his eyes to the “step by step killings” in
Syria.
The 1994 Rwandan
genocide and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre occurred on the former UN
secretary-general’s watch, Farmaz Hussein recalls. “And had Annan had his way
in 2003, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein would have been oppressing the Iraqi people
to this day.”
Also writing for Elaph, Nohad
Ismail says, “Absurd maneuvers and sterile meetings will lead Annan
nowhere. He will ultimately discover that he was led to play the role of a
halfwit duped by a cunning tyrant sitting in Damascus.
“Annan was wrong to call
on Assad and then fly to Tehran and Baghdad, the two capitals supportive of the
dictatorship in Syria and hostile to the Syrian people’s revolution. He failed to
show up at the (Friends of Syria) conference in Geneva, but was eager to visit
conspirators against the Syrian people.”
Ismail says, “Annan
would have done much better to go to disaster areas in Idlib, Rastan, Deraa,
Hama and Deir al-Zor, among others. He would have done much better to tour Syrian refugee camps
in Jordan and Turkey, if only to hear stories” like Umm Qusay’s.
“Umm Qusay” refers to a
mother in Atarib, Syria, called Amina. She described in graphic detail to The
Daily Telegraph’s Ruth Sherlock how government forces tied a rope around
the leg of her disabled son Qusay, dragged him through the streets, beat him
until unconscious and then shot him dead.
According to renowned
political analyst Abdelwahhab Badrakhan, Annan wasn’t mourning his mission when
he had a good cry in his recent interviews with France’s Le Monde and the UK’s Guardian.
In effect, Badrakhan writes for al-Hayat,
the special envoy was sobbing to win an extension of his mandate.
“Oddly, Annan blames his
failure on the Friends of Syria, who – unlike Russia and Syria’s regime –
didn’t lend him a hand. He thought he only lacked Iran’s help to succeed.
“Annan isn’t naïve. But he
overlooks the specifics -- that he embarked on a deactivated task and that his
helpers controlled his steps before he set out. The mere fact that Assad
hastens to defend Annan and rule out his failure should make clear to the joint
special envoy of the UN and Arab League that he is playing into the regime’s
hands as a dream merchant.”
Badrakhan says Annan is daydreaming if he thinks he can sell the Syrian people a hollow political process cobbled together by Assad, Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and Iran’s Qassem Soleimani. Were all the Syrian people’s sacrifices made to win a dialogue with a killer regime on how best to keep it in place?
Badrakhan says Annan is daydreaming if he thinks he can sell the Syrian people a hollow political process cobbled together by Assad, Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and Iran’s Qassem Soleimani. Were all the Syrian people’s sacrifices made to win a dialogue with a killer regime on how best to keep it in place?
An-Nahar’s Rajeh el-Khoury describes as “scandalous” Annan’s entreaties at his
latest meeting with Assad in Damascus -- “Mr.
President, let’s try again, let’s agree a mechanism for a ceasefire starting
with any one of the (Syrian) hotspots. We can then duplicate it in another… At the same time, we would ask for a goodwill gesture
on your part in the chosen area. Let’s try applying this (phased ceasefire)
approach step by step.”
Al-Hayat’s Hassan Haidar in turn says, “Notwithstanding
Annan’s excuses for flying to Tehran and declaring Iran can play a ‘positive
role’ in resolving Syria’s deepening crisis, the trip was a departure from his
mandate, which is based on the Arab League roadmap for a transition in Syria
that was endorsed by the UN Security Council. His shuttles have turned into time
wasting pending military and political developments and the fate of the UN
observer mission, which is already on its deathbed.
“The Syrian National Council’s talks in Moscow
yesterday confirmed that Annan’s improvisations are leading nowhere. Moscow, as
the Syrian opposition found out, is not yielding an inch on its support of
Assad. So how does Annan expect Iran, which is up to its ears in defending
Damascus’ ruler, to play a ‘positive role’ in anything to do with a political
transition meant to lead to regime change?
“…Even if some believe the state of flux will persist
at least until after the U.S. elections, thus justifying the need for some sort
of go-between, the UN and League of Arab States are called upon to restrain
their joint envoy and order him to stop breaching the terms of his mandate.”
Useful links:
- Annan’s remarks to Security Council on Syria
- UK draft resolution on Syria (UNSMIS) under Chapter VII
