Annan Plan ‘Failing’ in Syria as Violence Trumps Monitors

The United Nations effort to halt the bloodshed in Syria is “failing,” two U.S. officials said while adding that the Obama administration is sticking with diplomacy to end the conflict.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday reiterated his call for an immediate halt to the violence, focusing on Syrian government violations of the cease-fire terms, and for more UN observers to join the advance contingent of 15 monitors now in Syria. Finding and deploying unarmed monitors is going slowly, and it may take three to four weeks more to deploy 100 of the anticipated 300, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington.
At least 28 people were killed in Syria yesterday, bringing to 259 the number who have died in the violence since the UN Security Council agreed April 21 to deploy as many as 300 unarmed cease-fire observers, according to the website of the opposition Local Coordination Committees. The group counts 530 people killed since the April 12 announcement of the cease-fire brokered by Kofi Annan, the special envoy for the UN and the Arab League.
“I would say it’s failing,” Derek Chollet, the president’s nominee to be assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, said of the Annan plan.
The administration will continue to use economic sanctions and diplomacy to pressure the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Chollet said at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“What is obvious and indisputable is that the Kofi Annan plan has failed,” Senator John McCain said at the hearing. The Arizona Republican, who recently visited refugee camps on Turkey’s border with Syria, said it is a “shameful situation” that civilians “are being slaughtered” by the Syrian regime.

Arming the Opposition

“We are talking about economic sanctions and diplomatic sanctions when we should be helping these people as we helped the people of Bosnia, as we helped in Libya, and we’ve helped in other times in our history,” said McCain, who advocates arming the opposition.
Pentagon officials are drawing up plans should President Barack Obama decide to pursue military options in Syria, a second administration nominee, Kathleen Hicks, told the committee. She also testified that the Annan plan is failing.
“We are doing a significant amount of planning for a wide range of scenarios, including our ability to assist allies and partners along the borders,” said Hicks, the nominee to be principal deputy defense undersecretary for policy.
The U.S., Turkey and other allies have discussed creating a civilian aid corridor along the Syrian border as one possible action if the fighting continues.

Pressing for Monitors

The Security Council is pressing for monitors to be deployed as quickly as possible with a goal of deterring the violence to enable talks on Syria’s future, said two UN diplomats who spoke anonymously because the council discussions are private.
Council members are aware that without observers the Annan mission will collapse, one of the diplomats said. The observers are Plan A, and if that doesn’t work, because the monitors don’t arrive in time, or Annan’s mediation fails, the council will have to move to Plan B, he said.
Both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe have raised the possibility of asking the UN to impose demands and further sanctions on Syria that could be enforced militarily under Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which was invoked in the case of Libya.
In Paris, Juppe said on April 25 that Annan’s next scheduled report to the council, planned for May 5, will show whether his plan is working. If not, he said, France may seek action under Chapter 7 even if Russia and China would veto the measure.

Security Council Credibility

In the meantime, the continued violence reflects the UN’s ineffectiveness in this situation and the limited will to act by the U.S. and other “Friends of Syria,” said Aram Nerguizian at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington policy group.
There is little international will for greater involvement, particularly during an election year in both the U.S. and France, and especially because neither the regime nor the opposition seem interested in putting down their arms, Nerguizian said in a telephone interview.
“None of the players are really committed in ways that are long-lasting to a path away from violence, and the Syrians are paying the price for that now,” he said.
UN special envoy Annan called April 25 for the accelerated deployment of monitors, part of his six-point cease-fire plan.