UN Envoy to Syria Resigns Post
August 2|, 2012
Kofi Annan, the special United Nations (UN) and Arab League envoy (representative) who has worked for months to resolve the conflict in Syria, submitted his resignation today to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Annan will leave his position at the end of August. A former UN secretary-general and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Annan had grown increasingly frustrated with his inability to achieve even a short-term cease-fire. The conflict began in March 2011 as a peaceful uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It has now escalated into full-blown civil war.
Annan’s six-point proposal–which called for Assad to withdraw his forces from urban areas and for the rebels to put down their arms–never went into effect, despite Assad’s pledge to comply. Annan also failed to secure an enforceable Security Council resolution and tougher sanctions against the Assad regime. Russia and China, permanent members with veto power, opposed any resolution that might lead to UN-backed military intervention.
Kofi Annan (AP/Wide World and Kathy Willens)
In a statement announcing the resignation, Secretary Ban noted that the Security Council’s own divisions “have themselves become an obstacle to diplomacy, making the work of any mediator vastly more difficult.” Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Switzerland, Annan delivered a blistering criticism of the Security Council’s failure to unite to stop the escalating violence: “The bloodshed continues, most of all because of the Syrian government’s intransigence, and continuing refusal to implement the six-point plan, and also because of the escalating military campaign of the opposition–all of which is compounded by the disunity of the international community. . . . At a time when we need–when the Syrian people desperately need action–there continues to be finger-pointing and name-calling in the Security Council.”
Additional World Book articles:
- Arab Spring
- Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a Special Report)
- Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)
