Looks like Bashar al-Assad is ready to deal.
The Syrian government has accepted U.N. envoy Kofi Annan’s plan to forge peace and end violence, Annan’s spokesman said on Tuesday.
Annan has offered Syria a six-point plan – supported by the U.N. Security Council – as a way to halt the violence.
The proposal seeks to stop the violence and the killing, give access to humanitarian agencies, release detainees, and start an inclusive political dialogue to address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people, according to a U.N. statement.
Hey look. Smart power and stuff. It’s like it works or something, and that there are ugly foreign policy problems that can be solved without blowing things up. Can’t wait until the usual suspects tell us how awesome the United Nations suddenly is, and that President Whatshisface had nothing to do with this.
Steve
I sorta think this is a problem that was solved primarily through violence, albeit not our violence. The Syrian rebels didn’t exactly tack a list of demands on the door.
jeffreyw
This is because they found oil in Kenya. Connect the dots, man, connect the dots.
Linda Featheringill
Excellent! Wonderful!
And phooey on any critics. This looks like it has real possibilities and I hope it does well.
Handy
Better than the Rmoney plan to just let them bottom out and buy up the remaining assets and sell them. :)
MattF
I’d hold off on any congratulations until the facts on the ground bear a resemblance to what’s specified in the plan. Assad has agreed to lots of things, none of which have actually happened.
Omnes Omnibus
@MattF: Step 1 is getting a plan. It is worth some congratulations; you have to celebrate some of the little victories or els you may never get to celebrate anything. Steps 2-? are carrying out the plan. Who knows how that will turn out.
Egg Berry
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think we all know step 3 is PROFIT!
Schlemizel
No, the UN can never be awesome, never, ever, ever. This is obviously a failure as is anything the UN has ever done or ever will do. Obama’s failure to use massive military force is just evidence of is complete inadequacy as President and having the UN bail him out signals the rest of the world how weak the US is.
Cheeses, this isn’t hard – any idea if there is a welfare slot open at redface.com or one of those “think” tanks? This is so simple I could knock shit like this out in a couple of hours and spend my free time enjoying those Koch checks.
Egg Berry
Ahh, the McArdle employment plan.
some guy
so armed resistance to repressive authoritarianism, led by the Muslim Brotherhood is not only OK but supported by the liberal left? awesome news.
someone alert the Palestinians, blowing up car bombs, assassinating regime supporters and attacking government security installations is now on the OK List. finally.
Chyron HR
@some guy:
So armed response to mild corporate reforms is not only OK but supported by the radical right? Awesome news.
Keith G
@some guy: Please remember that we get the option of choosing legit freedom fighters from those who are not.
Now that Bashir has spent a year killing off opposition and cowering the populace, he might (wrongly)intuit that he can return to just old school police-state oppression to get his needs met. The good news is that for now the artillery might be silenced, but I doubt that the arrests , torture and targeted assassinations will cease.
Zandar
@MattF: I’d hold on on congratulations until ponies.
some guy
so the Muslim Brotherhood is a legitimate resistance force in Syria but the Muslim Brotherhood is NOT a legitimate resistance force in Palestine.
sure, that makes sense.
danielx
Cue The Usual Suspects howling in chorus: “Kofi Annan is a commie terrorist sympathizing wimp and this will never ever work.”
I have to admit a certain amount of skepticism. Al-Assad’s daddy Hafez was a murdering tyrant and Bashar is definitely a chip off the old block, and equally indifferent to international opinion. But if the shooting stops at least for a little while, it will be an improvement.
Citizen_X
@some guy: What, the Muslim Brotherhood “leads” all resistance in Syria and Palestine? Where did you get that?
__
How about the New Black Panther Party? Are you sure they aren’t leading everything over ther too?
valdemar
The British government just threatened to take away Mrs Assad’s access to ALL the shops in London. That probably counted for more with the regime than any number of dead civilians. But, yes, good for the UN.
danielx
@Schlemizel:
It’s true, I thought the same thing last night while writing about how we must bring dynamic democracy to Kenya. I could fill a cushy gig writing horseshit at the Heritage Foundation or AEI with ease, except that I don’t think I could tolerate the constant state of nausea, developing ulcers, or vertigo caused by constant cognitive dissonance. Are there drugs available that would help?
some guy
@danielx:
who the fuck do you think is leading it? Why did all the secular leaders recently quit the Syrian National Council.
catch a clue, the resistance is led by the Brotherhood. I know this may be hard for you to understand, but the armed resistance didn’t just spring up out of thin air.
LGRooney
@danielx: Skepticism is healthy, in general. It’s when visceral skepticism becomes an assumption of truth that is a problem.
I generally think this can be chalked up to the Russians. While the Russians stymied any efforts at UN resolutions against Syria, because they want friends too, their recent overtures to Assad to stop being such an Ass-ad are paying off. The Russians are very effective negotiators behind closed doors with weaker partners. Russia wants a port of call in the Med, and they want someone to whom they can sell their weapons. So, their strong-arming of Assad while probably guaranteeing him support in his position could secure both of their desires.
Such is the chitter-chatter I hear.
LGRooney
@danielx: Work from home and phone it in. Isn’t that the way?
some guy
@some guy:
ooops, that comment was directed at Citizen X, not danileX. getting used to the new system
Joey Maloney
@valdemar: Muslim Brotherhood -> Black Muslims -> Black Panthers.
Connect the dots, man. Connect the dots.
MattF
FWIW, here’s this morning’s NYT coverage of Syria, etc.:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/world/middleeast/syrian-opposition-leaders-meet-as-bloodshed-continues.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp
lacp
It’s worth the effort to try for a peaceful solution, though I have my doubts – the religious division is going to be awfully hard to bridge.
Schlemizel
@LGRooney:
While drugs would be nice I think you just have to be able to compartmentalize your ‘soul’. If the money was good you could sort of drown out that bleating annoyance calling for human decency with good wine, fancy vacations, pink salt, high-end kitchen appliances.
I was an amateur magician/mentalist as a kid & after seeing a faith healer work knew I could do that job. Its not hard, I even practice & my religious upbringing really made it simple. Seeing the money I left on the table doing an honest job instead of following Peter Popoff, Jack Coe, Oral Roberts, Benny Hinn, – Jesus this list goes on for ever – some days I wish my mom had not instilled a sense of decency in my. Thats a hell of a lot of money.
LGRooney
@Schlemizel: Yes, my father was a VP for Pat Robertson at one point and the money was good. Alas, my parents too instilled in me a sense of decency and I would not follow in his footsteps – only taking it farther since he left because CBN was definitely not interested in doing god’s work. Lots of money politicizing rubes for the benefit of the wealthy and I could have become caterer to myself in a very short period.
My conscience sucks!
El Cid
There is a problem that Assad has been repeatedly presenting reform / accord initiatives which he then ignores.
Davis X. Machina
If they had oil, we’d have invaded them already. Look at the tens of thousands of troops we’ve got in Libya….
El Cid
A good general review essay in Middle East Research & Information Project (MERIP)’s Spring issue:
I’m sure the author only mistakenly mentioned Iraq as a disaster, since everything was fixed by the SURGE, hallowed be its name.
__
The important bit is that Syria is a battleground for a lot of nearby states whose interests are quite clear in terms of decades of foreign policy, and those align with the interests of the Syrian populations only when this luckily happens.
El Cid
@Davis X. Machina: Syria has oil. A good bit of it.
Davis X. Machina
@El Cid: Pee-hole in the snow. Half a percent of world production, and a third of that reserved for domestic production.
kindness
Me thinks the Syrian strong guy is playing the UN off as chumps one more time. Let’s review, yesterday Syrian troops invaded and attacked outposts in Lebanon chasing after people. Yesterday the Syrian Army attacked crowds in one Syrian city with rockets fired from a helicopter.
Me thinks this guy is staying dug in till some one kills him, and he doesn’t care if the whole country gets burned down around him. Shades of Libya….
El Cid
@Davis X. Machina: Well, you didn’t say if only Syria had god-awfully large oil reserves. If so, that already would have been a factor.
__
That said, it’s not like its production of oil is such that it fails to attract the attention of regional rivals. It’s real, even if it isn’t gigantic. It’s also extremely important to the regime itself, as it’s a great way of funding themselves.
__
The industries owned and run by the military in Egypt, for example, aren’t world-historic in their significance, but they’re a main reason for the military keeping its vice-like grip on power there — because though the money isn’t at internationally dominant levels, it’s what gives money to the military-based elites, who are also among the nation’s most prominent economic elites, due to those same industries.
Davis X. Machina
@El Cid: But it’s not big enough to attract an Israeli-NATO-EU-US led invasion, like Libya.
burnspbesq
@some guy:
When you can substantiate that, I’ll think about taking you seriously. “Catch a clue” is not evidence; it’s a tell that you have no evidence.
AA+ Bonds
Perhaps we should wait until this plan works or something
AA+ Bonds
The UN doesn’t rule just because American unilateral action doesn’t work
Brachiator
Remember that Obama only does what any president would do, although somehow Republican presidents would do it better.
.
El Cid
@Davis X. Machina: No, but then, few situations are. Take for example the US-created toady regimes in Congo / Zaire: for a while just funding army leaders was good enough, along with continuing Belgian / Western strength in short term force projection and controlling mining interests. For a short time, the US sent over Cuban exiles as fighter pilots. And the US had control over the mostly uncontrolled nation for generations, without the sort of direct military intervention which went on in Libya.
If someone has a particular job in mind, a variety of tools may work.
That doesn’t mean that just because someone thinks there might be a particular job in mind on the US’ part that there therefore is, but the lack of use of one or another tool wouldn’t be the exclusive evidence.
And given that the Libyan situation is once again appearing to have been destabilizing North Africa, perhaps toward yet another series of likely long-raging but mostly smaller arm civil wars again, it’s worth paying very close attention to.
some guy
@burnspbesq:
http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/687136
srv
What people haven’t figured out is that once the new norm in post-spring governments establish themselves, the US will be spending generations covertly destabilizing them. We have a lot of experience with this on other continents.
some guy
@burnspbesq:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/25/203114.html
do you have any clue, Burnsie, what the Free Syrian Army names its Brigades? just because the American media downplay the centrality of the MB to the armed resistance, or the fact that the SNC is dominated by the Brotherhood, doesn’t mean those of us who are watching are as ignorant as you are.
some guy
Moawiyah Bin Abi Sufian Brigade
Saad Bin Moaz battalion
Omar Ibn al-Khattab battalion
Abu Obeidah bin Al-Jarrah battalion
clearly, the Free Syrian Army has NOTHING to do with the Brothers. these are committed secularists, their names says it all, right there, committed to liberte, egalite, and fraternite.
chump
some guy
BEIRUT (AP) — The gunmen in eastern Syria, wielding grenade launchers and assault rifles, announced on the Internet they were forming the “God is Great” Brigade and joining the country’s rebellion. They swore allegiance to the Free Syrian Army and vowed to topple President Bashar Assad.
But unlike many other rebel bands, they wrapped their proclamation in hard-line Islamic language, declaring their fight to be a “jihad,” or holy war, and urging others to do the same.
“To our fellow revolutionaries, don’t be afraid to declare jihad in the path of God. Seek victory from the One God. God is the greatest champion,” the brigade’s spokesman said in the January video. “Instead of fighting for a faction, fight for your nation, and instead of fighting for your nation, fight for God.”
…
The council is “a liberal front for the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Kamal Labwani, a veteran secular dissident, who broke away. He said the Brotherhood was trying to build allegiances on the ground in Syria.
“One day we will wake up to find an armed militia … controlling the country through their weapons,” Labwani said.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Word. My bet is he’s trying to minimize the chance of any substantive aid to the Syrian National Council coming out of the next Friends of Syria summit in April.