Annan to hold talks in Syria

International peace envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Damascus on Sunday, where he is scheduled to meet with the Syrian government to discuss the country's bloody conflict at the start of the week.

Annan's arrival comes just one day after he admitted his peace plan had failed to halt nearly 16 months of bloodshed.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told the AFP news agency that Annan would act "within the framework of his mission, for discussion with the Syrian leadership on the subject of the six-point plan."

Annan's arrival in Syria follows US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's warning on Sunday that time to save Syria "from a catastrophic assault" was running out.

Assad supports Annan's plan

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in an interview with German broadcaster ARD, said United Nations envoy Kofi Annan's peace place to end the 16 months of bloodshed was being undermined. Assad accused countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia of providing support for "terrorists."

"We know that (Annan) is coming up against countless obstacles but his plan should not be allowed to fail, it is a very good plan," Assad said in an interview with the broadcaster.

"The biggest obstacle is that many countries do not even want this plan to succeed so they offer political support and continue to provide the terrorists in Syria with arms and money," Assad said in the yet to be broadcast interview.

He accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supplying weapons to rebel groups, and Turkey of providing logistical assistance to help smuggle in supplies. The United States, he said, provided political support.

Conceding defeat

United Nations-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan has conceded that so far, international efforts to end the fighting in Syria have failed.

"The evidence shows that we have not succeeded," the former UN secretary-general said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.

While he acknowledged that his six-point peace plan for the country had made little headway, he offered little in the way of new ideas about how to remedy the situation. However, he did suggest that blaming Russia for continuing to support the regime of Syrian President Assad was not bringing the international community closer to a solution.

"Russia has influence, but I don't think that events will be determined by Russia alone. What strikes me is that there is so much talk about Russia and much less about Iran, and little is said about other countries that are sending money and weapons," Annan said.

"All of these countries say they want a peaceful solution, but they undertake individual and collective actions that undermine the very meaning of (UN) Security Council resolutions," he added.

Ban calls for changes to UN mission

The comments came after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for changes to the international observer mission that is meant to monitor a cease-fire, which was the first phase of Annan's peace plan.

In a report to the Security Council, Ban said the number of personnel in the UN mission in Syria should be scaled back. He called for more of the staff to be civilians who are focused on searching for a political solution to the conflict, and fewer military observers monitoring a cease-fire that never took hold.

Opposition activists estimate that more than 17,000 people have been killed in Syria since protests against Assad's rule began in March of 2011.

jlw,pfd/slk (AP, AFP, Reuters)