Deutsche Welle: Annan Set To Go on Mission Impossible in Syria

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan heads to Damascus this weekend to resolve the increasingly bloody conflict there, but experts say the mission is a long shot. Annan travels to Syria on Saturday with the full backing of his successor, UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, who seems to believe that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is his best and perhaps only chance at the moment to deescalate government violence against the opposition. Annan will also be speaking in the name of the 22-member Arab League, which is growing increasingly critical of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Experts don't give Annan much of a chance of achieving a breakthrough in what could be seen as a diplomatic "mission impossible." "Annan faces very long odds," the president of the International Crisis Group, Louise Arbour, told AFP news agency. "The regime seems determined to crush the protest movement and views any concessions as a first step toward its downfall." With the tacit backing of Russia and China, who have vetoed UN Security Council resolutions condemning the government crackdown on the opposition, Assad's forces bombarded and retook rebel strongholds such as the Homs last week. The United Nations says more than 7,500 civilians have died in Syria's campaigns against anti-Assad protests. Meanwhile, aid groups are having difficulty even entering the worst-affected areas of Syria to alleviate the considerable human suffering there. It Annan is to get results, he needs leverage, moral or otherwise, to move the Assad regime, but it is entirely unclear what such a lever could be.