After more than a year of brutal bloodshed, which has claimed the lives of more than 9,000 people in Syria, an uneasy truce took hold on Thursday. Scattered fighting reportedly persists, but by and large, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad appears to have halted its devastating attacks on rebel strongholds. The ceasefire is part of a six-point peace plan crafted by Kofi Annan, the former secretary general of the United Nations. However, skeptics warn that Syria hasn't agreed to all of Annan's provisions, and maintains the right to "respond proportionately to any attacks carried out by armed terrorist groups," which may offer a massive loophole through which the government can justify further attacks on its citizens. Is Annan kidding himself that Assad actually wants peace?
Assad will never relent: "Annan set about his work admirably," says Jonathan Schanzer at The New Republic, but his naive "plan creates more problems than it solves." By failing to demand Assad's ouster, and merely calling for a "dialogue between Assad and the opposition," the U.N. envoy "is tipping the scales in favor of a murderous regime." It's no wonder Assad was eager to embrace the plan, since a pointless diplomatic dance will just buy him time before he resumes his bloody crackdown on the rebels.
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