Annan resigns as Syria special envoy

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Annan resigns as Syria special envoy

2012-08-02

Kofi Annan resigned as the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria on Thursday (August 2nd) and said the "disunity of the international community" hindered his attempts to implement his six-point peace plan.

"I did not receive all the support that the cause deserved," Annan told reporters at the United Nation headquarters in Geneva.

"The increasing militarisation on the ground and the lack of unanimity in the Security Council fundamentally changed my role," he said.

Annan said his eventual successor might have more success in persuading opposition and regime forces to lay down their arms, predicting that Syrian President Bashar Assad will leave office "sooner or later".

"I am still concerned for the Syrian people. They can still be saved. The men, women and children who have already suffered far too much," he said.

"We need a well-balanced political settlement to resolve this", Annan added.

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had announced "with deep regret" that Annan had tendered his resignation from the mission.

"Kofi Annan deserves our profound admiration for the selfless way in which he has put his formidable skills and prestige to this most difficult and potentially thankless of assignments," Ban said, adding that he is in discussions with the Arab League on naming a successor.

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فراس شاكر محمود

2012-8-4

I call on the international community to strive to prevent the massacres in Syria through the help of the States that have a weight in the Arabic region and the Western States through the conferences, and the conventions to prevent the massacres that occur in Syria in order to resolve this massacre as well as to stop the bloodshed and to limit it, the displacement of children, the killing of the innocent people, the prevention of violence which generates the ruin of the country, the destruction of the houses, and the use of the internationally prohibited weapons. Therefore, the international community must have a wonderful and great effort to disseminate peace in Syria because the situation of violence causes many losses that undoubtedly will accrue the people to fall behind. It will take the people a long time to regain its economic, military and human forces because of the youth who died. We must strive to prevent these massacres and stand behind the international community in order to be able to prevent these massacres that only cause losses. The international community must hold conferences to reduce the escalating violence in Syria and emphasize the need to support the political transition in Syria rapidly by ending the violence in the country. Also, they should put the pressures and sanctions on the officials in Syria to increase pressure to halt these massacres taking place in the country. Therefore, the international community should make the maximum effort to stabilize the political and the economic situation in Syria.