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)

May 29, 2012

Major Western nations today expelled Syrian diplomats in response to the massacre of 108 civilians in the Houla region of Syria on May 25. (Houla is an area northwest of the city of Homs, center of the 14-month uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.) Outrage over the killings–one of the gravest atrocities in the uprising–prompted the governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States to inform the various Syrian legations that top diplomats are to leave within the week.

(World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

In Syria’s capital, Damascus, United Nations (UN) special envoy Kofi Annan announced that he has warned Assad that time is running out. “We are at a tipping point,” he stated at a news conference. “The Syrian people do not want the future to be one of bloodshed and division. Yet the killings continue and the abuses are still with us today. As I reminded the president, the international community will soon be reviewing the situation.”

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville announced earlier in the day that investigations suggest that most of those killed in the village of Taldou, near Houla–including 49 children and 34 women–were “summarily executed,” killed by close-range gunfire or knife attack. Survivors claimed that the army and the feared shabiha militia from nearby Alawite villages carried out the atrocities. (Alawites are a mystical Sunni Muslim religious group prominent in Syria. The Assad family and most Syrian government officials are members of the sect.) It is widely believed that the shabiha–Arabic for “thugs”–are the Assad regime’s hired goons.

Kofi Annan (AP/Wide World and Kathy Willens)

On May 27, the UN Security Council, meeting in emergency session, condemned the Syrian government “in the strongest possible terms” for “the killings . . . of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more.” The council pronounced the “outrageous use of violence against civilians” constituted a violation of international law. (Russia, for the first time, acted with other members of the council against Syria, a long-time ally.) According to UN monitors, before the atrocities took place, the area had been bombarded with artillery and tank shells, weapons available only to the Syrian army. The Syrian government has blamed the massacre on terrorists and Islamic extremists. At least 10,000 people have died in Syria since protests against the Assad regime broke out in March 2011.

Additional World Book articles:

• Diplomacy
• Hafez al-Assad
• Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Syria 2011 (a Back in Time article)

Feb. 8, 2012

France, Italy, Germany, and Spain yesterday followed the lead of the United Kingdom and the United States in recalling their ambassadors from Syria.The six Gulf Cooperation Council states–Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirate–also announced that that they were withdrawing their envoys as well as expelling the Syrian ambassadors from their capitals. The United Nations (UN) estimates that at least 7,200 people have died in the government crackdown on the 11-month-old rebellion against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. His father, Hafez al-Assad, a member of the Baath Party and commander of the air force, took power in Syria in 1970. He ruled until his death in 2000. Bashar al-Assad succeeded him as president.

The United Kingdom and the United States recalled their ambassadors on February 6. Speaking in the House of Commons, British Foreign Secretary William Hague labeled Assad’s regime “murderous” and stated: “There is no way it [the Assad regime] can recover its credibility internationally or with its own people.” After the U.S. Department of State issued a statement announcing the closure of the U.S. embassy in Damascus, international affairs experts suggested that it sent a strong signal that the administration of President Barack Obama believed there is nothing left to discuss with Assad.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continues to kill civilians opposed to his regime despite international condemnation. AP/Wide World

On February 4, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution (a formal expression of opinion) calling for Assad to step down. All 13 other members of the council, including France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, voted for the resolution, which backed an Arab League plan to halt the violence. After the vote, Secretary Hague noted, “More than 2,000 people have died since Russia and China vetoed the last draft resolution in October 2011. How many more need to die before Russia and China allow the UN Security Council to act?” Government forces in Syria renewed the shelling of the city Homs, the epicenter of the 11-month-old rebellion, as the UN vote took place.

Additional World Book articles

• Diplomacy
• Foreign policy
• Lebanon