The peace mission of the United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, is unlikely to succeed, for reasons besides his own limitations. Annan has had a tendency to wallow in diplomatic inaction, rather than encourage decisive action, often with tragic results. The former UN secretary-general has admitted that he failed to get the organisation to do enough to stop the massacre of an estimated 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994. The present situation in Syria suggests that the international community has still not learnt how to protect people from renegade states.
Annan has encouraged President Bashar Al Assad to embrace change and accept his "concrete proposals" to end the bloodshed in Syria. Annan is being mindlessly optimistic. It is obvious that Al Assad is only willing to meet envoys to buy time while his regime crushes its opposition.
The ultimate failure of the Annan mission in the face of blatant intransigence and continued bloodshed by the Syrian regime may force some of its backers in the international community — like Russia and China — to take stronger action against it. Syria must be forced to pull back its troops from its cities and release political prisoners before there can be any meaningful dialogue about a national settlement.
