Kofi Annan Syria Visit: Former U.N. Chief Ends Talks With Bashar Al-Assad

* Former UN chief says he remains optimistic

* Syrian forces pursue drive against rebels in northwest

* Clinton to meet Lavrov

By Dominic Evans

BEIRUT, March 12 (Reuters) - U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has ended talks with President Bashar al-Assad and left Syria with little sign of progress on halting the country's growing political bloodshed.

"I am optimistic for several reasons," Annan said in Damascus on Sunday. "The situation is so bad and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail."

There was no clear response from Assad to Annan's "concrete proposals" for a ceasefire, dialogue and humanitarian aid. Assad told Annan opposition "terrorists" were blocking any political solution.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in New York on Monday when the U.N. Security Council holds a special meeting on Arab revolts.

Russia, long an ally of Syria, and China have blocked attempts to pass a Security Council resolution condemning Damascus for its attempts to crush a year-old rebellion by force, in which thousands have died.

Moscow and Beijing want any international blame for the violence to be apportioned more evenly. China's Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said in Riyadh on Sunday both Syrian sides should stop fighting and aid should be sent to strife-torn areas - but he also warned other states not to use aid to "interfere".

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have taken a hawkish line against the Syrian government.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Feisal on Sunday repeated calls for the Syrian opposition to be provided with weapons. This was the only way to end the conflict without foreign intervention, he said.

"The regime in Syria is committing a massacre of its own citizens," he added, after talks with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in Riyadh.

"We cannot accept the completely unreasonable continuation of the atrocities being perpetrated by the Assad regime against its own people," Westerwelle said.


The United Nations says Assad's forces have killed more than 7,500 people in their crackdown on protesters and insurgents. Authorities say rebels have killed 2,000 soldiers.

Annan's mission coincided with a Syrian military offensive against opposition strongholds in the northwest.

Activists said at least four people were killed in the town of Idlib on Sunday after troops and tanks moved in a day earlier. Three soldiers and a civilian were also killed in fighting in the village of Janoudiya in Idlib province on Sunday morning, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

State news agency SANA said "terrorists" shot dead a former boxing champion, Ghiath Tayfour, in the city of Aleppo and also killed a leading Baath Party member in Homs province.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are both ruled by autocrats and espouse a strict version of Sunni Islam, are improbable champions of democracy in Syria. Riyadh has an interest in seeing Assad fall because this could weaken its Shi'ite regional rival Iran, which has been allied with Syria since 1980.

The exiled opposition Syrian National Council ruled out talks while Assad is in power.

"Negotiations can never take place between the victim and torturer: Assad and his entourage must step down as a condition before starting any serious negotiations," it said. (Editing by Andrew Roche)

Comments

[bit123]

12:46 PM on 03/13/2012

As Kofi Annan meets with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, hundreds of women, children and men are being tortured, raped, and slaughtered. The time for dialogue has passed months ago and the fact that the international community continues to meet with this murderer only legitimizes his actions and allows for them to continue. You simply cannot bargain with the devil because this only gives the devil more time to destroy and take away lives. There is no "optimism" on the ground when 45 women and children were raped and slaughtered with knives the day of the meeting. A cease-fire is a cease-fire and that has not and will not occur when dealing with this regime. Dialogue was attempted before with the Arab League and observers from the Arab League were sent in yet the killing increased.

[se72748]

01:57 PM on 03/12/2012

Why doesn't the Arab league handle this? The Syrians are their Islamic brothers.They have trillions of dollars in oil money.Why are they sniveling around trying to get the great satan to help them.They detest everything about us ,except our bloodshed for them ,or by them.Let the Arabs do their own dirty work.

[ELEV-B-P]

08:55 AM on 03/12/2012

HOW COME OBAMA HASNT DONE AN END RUN AROUND CONGRESS AND DEPLOYED OUR MILITARY UNDER UN WISHES WITH OUT CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL WITH THIS ONE?????

[duegger]

09:26 AM on 03/12/2012

Because it is a sticky f'ing mes

[ensjohnnymaestro]

12:03 PM on 03/12/2012

Actually even Congress is saying "it is not in the US's interests" to interfere. So if you are going to point fingers do it equally.

[bigmower1]

08:28 AM on 03/12/2012

Assad shouldnt even agree to have any meetings with the UN, why would even do that. He should just cut off all ties to the outsiders, before they start up more propoganda, and more deaths. It ok if the UN supplies weapons to enemies of the country, but it isnt ok for others to do the same according to them. The UN calls them insurgents or terroists, but it is really the other way around.

[se72748]

02:01 PM on 03/12/2012

Its a Syrian civil war.Let them handle it.It is none of our business.

[bigmower1]

03:25 PM on 03/12/2012

Exactly, This is very obvious.

[bit123]

12:41 PM on 03/13/2012

What is going on in Syria is not a civil war, it is a systematic slaughtering of an innocent civilian population that demands international intervention in the name of humanity.

[grizzly bear55]

07:53 AM on 03/12/2012

Kofi had threatening messages to Assad is his pocket, he was sent by the UN warlords to scare Assad into submission.

Assad has a huge powerful army and is not afraid, it gets even better, he has a Russian naval base with an aircraft carrier and its support group.

This in no Libya, this is a big country with a real loyal army ready to protect the sovereignty of Syria against any would be invaders.

The Assyrians and the Persians were long on this earth before the Americans with their 200 year old country and will be long after the empire is in ruins.

[vietnamvet1967]

08:35 AM on 03/12/2012

He also has Russian radar and a Better Air Force than Libya

[bccpn]

07:38 AM on 03/12/2012

Look at Egypt. Are we supporting and willing to assist people who once in power will be an enemy?
The UN is about one world order and the leaders want to be in control. Can anyone remember the UN resolving any conflict?

[bigmower1]

08:25 AM on 03/12/2012

Actually the UN is the one starting the conflicts, they also use propoganda to trick people into things. They have killed far more people and ruined many countries and are still doing it, and they act like they are a righteous power, when in reality they are liars and greedy, and evil.

[vietnamvet1967]

08:36 AM on 03/12/2012

Look at LIBYA, The Muslium Brotherhood is in charge, But yet you hear no more bragging from Obama do you about how good this was for the US to help bomb

[marine1942]

07:13 AM on 03/12/2012

Ex U.N. chief meets with Syrian leader. Boy, oh boy do I feel better. Almost as good as Hillary talking and threating him.. Yep, the mighty U.N. and Hillary. They have power and respect--HA.

[robertstone1robert]

07:11 AM on 03/12/2012

Coffee-break Annan remains optimistic. Why? On what basis? The Syrian govt. has slowed the pace at which it's killing civilians? Does this guy read the news? He's in a quandary. He's accustomed to blaming Israel for everything, from the earthquake in Japan to the castle burning in Slovakia.

[fatherdjohnson]

07:04 AM on 03/12/2012

Great!

They send one corrupt, death-dealing politician to negotiate with another corrupt, death-dealing politician.

I hope that no one is setting the old expectation dial very high on this one.

[grizzly bear55]

07:47 AM on 03/12/2012

There are so many gullible people in the US that believe anything the propaganda machine churns at them.

Do you remember the Iraqi soldiers who entered the Kuwaiti hospital and were bayoneting the babies? a story that George Bush 1 spun on national TV.

Well it turned out it was a propaganda ploy to get people angry enough to support a war.

[fatherdjohnson]

08:25 AM on 03/12/2012

I do recall that.

I also recall that during the Kosovo crisis CNN featured top-level Pentagon briefings which featured satellite imagery of what these officials assured us were 'mass graves'. Well, after we bombed the Serbs into submission and imposed our occupation of Kosovo, the world (but not the U.S.) learned that there were no mass graves. We used the pretext of an alleged genocide in order to let our troops then preside over a real genocide (the quiet but determined effort of the Kosovo Albanians to eradicate Serbian presence from the province).

Nothing has changed.

And now we get reams of footage from Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and now Syria assuring us that it is proof of the atrocities being committed by those governments, that the people who are seeking the overthrow of those governments are peaceful, democratically-minded souls, and that it is democracy's birth in what had been a benighted region.

Nothing has changed.

[Taxim]

03:47 AM on 03/12/2012

The U.N.-Arab League envoy’s visit comes after U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos left Damascus following a hard-won agreement with the Syrian administration mission to secure relief access to protest centers, such as Syria’s third-largest city Homs.

“Amos was seeking to further cooperation with neighboring countries to Syria on humanitarian access, and we expressed Turkey’s readiness to contribute,” a Turkish diplomat said. Speaking in Ankara on March 9, Amos said a “joint preliminary humanitarian assessment mission” had been agreed in order to provide assistance to people in urgent need of it.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syria-optimist-annan-holds-ankara-talks.aspx?PageID=238&NID=15786&NewsCatID=338

[hjalmar]

02:39 AM on 03/12/2012

Let's talk turkey: the "uprisings" of Syria & Lybia are not revolts of The People. They were fomented by Special Forces from Israel, France, Britain, US and others to further the economic interests of said countries (primarily oil, but also strategic). In this case Syria has been targeted because of their ties with Iran (& Russia). In Lybia it was control of oil (have you read about the current miseries suffered by the Libyains now?).

[stealsnipe]

03:32 AM on 03/12/2012

excellent post. Syria, lies exposed......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48T7l7zAEyg

[tokyomk]

04:45 AM on 03/12/2012

What exactly qualifies Bashar Al-Assad to rule Syria, apart from being the son of the former dictator?

Is it the same logic that permitted W to be president of the US because his father also did it? Sorry, I voted for the 'other guy.'

[fatherdjohnson]

07:19 AM on 03/12/2012

There's no logic at all in stating that the same principle determines dictatorship succession as does one American president's son becoming president.

You might find it to be a comfortable association in your own mind, but by ignoring the obvious differences in the two cases, such an alleged logic does more to obscure than to reveal.

[willulisten]

02:25 AM on 03/12/2012

Who made the U N the law? We are not to take orders from the U N. Lets see if this gets posted?

[LeslieNeilson]

02:49 AM on 03/12/2012

We were to ignorant to see that power would be given to more than one nation .It started out as the League of Nations. That started the down turn of the US.And it's power .And elevated nations that were our sworn enemises.

[willulisten]

03:21 AM on 03/12/2012

F&F I know

[greytunes]

03:44 AM on 03/12/2012

The United States was never a member of the League of Nations, remember from high school history? The original Security Council had the USA, USSR, Britain, and France as the original members, as the coalition that defeated Germaney and Japan.

[Jerachrome]

07:52 AM on 03/12/2012

The United Nations was created as the result of arguably the most important lesson of World War II. That is, never allow a charismatic dictator like Hitler to consolidate sufficient resources to drag the entire world into another global conflagration. Had there been a United Nations in 1938, perhaps it would have marched into Berlin and hung Hitler. To the extent that the world has avoided World War III, the wisdom of its founders has been reaffirmed. The price of avoiding World War III has been numerous brushfire conflicts which have been confusing, frustrating, and costly. Have they been worth it? Consider that the US War Department budget in 1944 alone was $844 billion, in actual dollars, not taking inflation into account. Today, that would have been about $10 trillion. Consider also that the US lost 250,000 service people in World War II, and that the world lost 100 million people, mostly innocent civilians. That should put the purpose of the UN in perspective.

[ehjay]

02:22 AM on 03/12/2012

The exiled opposition Syrian National Council ruled out talks while Assad is in power.
"Negotiations can never take place between the victim and torturer

Those words are even more applicable to the Palestinian - Israeli situation.
The Palestinian torturers have been at it for 45 years.
Under the watchful eye of Washington of course.

[Cliff Rothband]

01:57 AM on 03/12/2012

Why should China and Russia act any different? They are only self serving. This spring revolt might catch up to them and human rights might become the norm. Authority breeds abuse, Absolute authority breeds absolute abuse!

[zenju2]

02:47 AM on 03/12/2012

Uh...what makes you think that "human rights" is a necessary outcome of "Arab Spring"? Consider what's been happening in Egypt.

[victorzeller]

01:29 AM on 03/12/2012

Clinton to meet Lavrov. Of course Clinton needs to meet with him. Obama doesn't have a clue.

[firstwizard]

01:53 AM on 03/12/2012

Are YOU that clueless? You do realize that's her job don't you? Or did you think they were talking about Bill?

[darkskiesrbest]

07:05 AM on 03/12/2012

No, I think he said BO was clueless and I agree.

[jaredbrain]

02:10 AM on 03/12/2012

and why did Bush send Condy everywhere? Oh maybe bc that's the SecState's job...