Kofi Annan In Iraq For Syria Talks

GENEVA, July 10 (Reuters) - International mediator Kofi Annan arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the Syrian crisis, Annan's spokesman said.

Annan, who earlier in the day held talks in Tehran with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, is on a regional tour that began with meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday.

"The Joint Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, arrived in Baghdad. He will hold talks with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on the crisis in Syria and its impact on the region," Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said in a statement.

Annan normally briefs the U.N. Security Council in New York on the results of such trips by video-link from his Geneva base and diplomats said he was expected to do so again on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)

Comments

[HRHuffinpuffy]

09:28 PM on 07/10/2012

barry bows, kofi curtsies, and syria shakes with fear

[mccglf]

06:53 PM on 07/10/2012

The face of political impotency and corruption has arrived. Things will all get better now.

[robertstone1robert]

05:34 PM on 07/10/2012

It'll give Annan an opportunity to travel the world, pick some more pockets under the guise that he's promoting world peace. We'll pay for it. It's all a mirage. When Assad runs out of money and loses the nefarious backing of Russia, Hugo Chavez and Iran then this massacre of civilians will stop.There's a lot of useless talking that Annan has to still engage in to pick up more money.

[esword2020]

05:08 PM on 07/10/2012

kofi just making things worse,he believes wat ever they tell him

[alhorvath]

03:55 PM on 07/10/2012

Total waste of time and lives. Syria will not have peace until Assad is dead.

[candalou2]

03:24 PM on 07/10/2012

some talk and nothing comes out, talk, talk talk.

[Guns and Ammo]

03:16 PM on 07/10/2012

BEWARE...Keep Koffi and his son away from the petty cash.....they have sticky fingers!

[mkn84]

02:30 PM on 07/10/2012

Kofi has a pull string on the back of his neck. You pull it and his lips move but no sound comes out.

[praymondc]

02:24 PM on 07/10/2012

Sounds a little like republican oversight hearings, but less biased and with greater purpose.. Still, the out come is likely to be the same... zero zip nothing. It is a Syrian problem after all, and one for them alone to resolve. If Annan can talk some sense into all directly involved, so be it. Didn't work with Lincon back in 1860-thru 65, nor will it work with Syrian President Bashar in 2012.

[NoQuarter472]

12:07 AM on 07/11/2012

And you sound like the ignorance that is brayed by the barry administration daily, which you enrich your half brain on a daily basis.

[praymondc]

01:02 AM on 07/11/2012

Congratulations, you have the I.Q. of a truck load of gravel.

[mcpackerfan]

02:02 PM on 07/10/2012

This aught to help. Annan is to the UN what Jimmy Carter is to the US. "Help Mr. Wizard, bring me home"

[jimmygwrites]

01:43 PM on 07/10/2012

Ooo that should fix everything!

[robertcape]

01:41 PM on 07/10/2012

Anything that keeps this windbag out of the United States is worth doing.... he begs, Arabs laugh.. useless.

[danoosh]

12:57 PM on 07/10/2012

While "Syria is burning," Koffi Annan is wasting time talking. Assad's action already caused about 17000 deaths, rapidly moving towards his father's record of slaughtering 30000 Syrian civilians, and Koffi Annan is talking.
And, whom is Annan talking to? Iran and Iraq. Assad's Syria is a client state of Iran (via Russia,) and Iraq is an unstable country also in the process of becoming a client of Iran, so what is Annan trying to accomplish?
It is well over a year since the start of the massacre in Syria, Hilary Clinton speaks in a tough manner suggesting that Assad must go, but the United States is standing on the sideline watching the slaughter; and Koffi Annan is talking.
When will Barak Obama show some international leadership (and this time lead from the front, not behind,) and help bring about an end to the Syrian slaughter? When will the United States demonstrate that it is not just a toothless tiger? OR, is the United under President Obama simply a toothless tiger?

[NoQuarter472]

12:09 AM on 07/11/2012

If you are waiting for that Marxist, obama. to move with backbone, stand back, he has an agenda to fulfill and that is to destroy this country first. He will join up with the strongest of the hubris when its safe and over.

[danoosh]

12:00 PM on 07/11/2012

Obama is no more a Marxist then the Pope...He does, as you say lack backbone, and has proven it many times. He is NOT out to destroy the country; he tries to mold it in an image that you and I may not like, but not to destroy it! As to following, or joining the strongest, that is Obama's approach, to "lead from behind..." Under Obama the US turned into a toothless tiger, just like under George W. Bush it was a "brainless lion!"

[Joe Mando]

11:58 AM on 07/10/2012

At the UN meetings around the globe: TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK, TALK.

In Syria EVER DAY: DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH.

[robertcape]

01:46 PM on 07/10/2012

Okay, so you understand how these two failures work.. what's your solution? And, don't use American children to "fix" it...

[Guns and Ammo]

03:21 PM on 07/10/2012

I'll re enlist and go over there if they give me plenty of targets and ammo.

[juststeve35]

11:42 AM on 07/10/2012

Kofi Annan is poised to do the ONLY thing he has even been successful at:

Talking.

Action? Progress?

Not so much...

[reddog9]

12:07 PM on 07/10/2012

As long as we keep demeaning and ignoring the UN it will be always be inefective.

[jimmygwrites]

01:45 PM on 07/10/2012

We wouldn't have ever started demeaning the UN if it wasn't so ineffective.

[robertcape]

01:49 PM on 07/10/2012

Give me a break! As soon as a bunch of broke, corrupt little nations and Russia and China started running it, it was officially "ineffective"..
even hear of the League of Nations? International politicians are no more honest or brighter than domestic ones...