Annan Optimistic after Assad Talks despite 'Tough' Mission
International peace envoy Kofi Annan emerged optimistic on Sunday from a second round of talks with President Bashar al-Assad, but warned that ending the bloodshed in Syria would be "tough."
"It's going to be tough, it's going to be difficult, but we have to have hope. I am optimistic," Annan told reporters in Damascus after the meeting.
"The situation is so bad and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail," the former U.N. chief added, in response to a suggestion that dialogue with the government was futile.
Annan said he had handed over a set of "concrete proposals" aimed at ending the crisis in Syria, where a crackdown by regime forces on mass protests that first erupted a year ago has killed more than 8,500 people, according to monitors.
"I presented a set of concrete proposals which would have a real impact on the situation on the ground and which will help launch a process aimed at putting an end to this crisis," he said.
"Our discussions focused on the core objectives of this process, the immediate stop to the violence and the killing, access for humanitarian agencies and the start of a political dialogue,' Annan added, reading from a prepared statement.
"The realistic response is to embrace change and reforms; reforms that would create a solid foundation for a democratic Syria, a peaceful, stable pluralistic and prosperous society based on the rule of law and respect for human rights," he said.
Members of the opposition have categorically rejected any dialogue with the government, saying that its previous reform pledges had come to nothing.
But Annan said the only way forward was "by comprising and making concessions," while urging the Syrian people to make their voices heard.
"Peace and stability in Syria is ... not the responsibility for the mediator alone, nor for the government alone. You should make your voices heard."
Annan said he had told Assad that his main preoccupation was "the welfare of the Syrian people, that we should place the interest of the people at the center of all of our efforts."
A Ghanaian of origin, he added: "I have urged the president to read the old African proverb, 'You can't turn the wind so turn the sail'."
Syrian state television had said there was a "positive atmosphere" to a first round of talks on Saturday between Assad and the former U.N. chief, their first since Annan's appointment as United Nations-Arab League envoy on the conflict.
But diplomats at the United Nations in New York expressed pessimism about the prospects for Annan's mission to end a year of bloodletting in Syria after troops poured into the northwestern city of Idlib late on Saturday, just hours after his first meeting with Assad.
A U.N. statement said that Annan had in the first meeting expressed "grave concern" over the relentless bloodshed in Syria and "urged the president to take concrete steps to end the current crisis."
Source: Agence France Presse
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