Syria's nod to UN peace plan greeted with scepticism

[alp227]

Source: The guardian

Syria's acceptance of a UN-backed plan to end the country's bloody crisis has triggered sceptical responses and concern that Bashar al-Assad is trying to buy time and divide his opponents.

Kofi Annan, the UN/Arab League envoy and former UN secretary general, announced that the Damascus regime had responded ceasefire calls, humanitarian access, the release of prisoners and negotiations on a Syrian-led political solution.

Britain's ambassador to the UN, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, told reporters in New York that Annan would brief the security council on Syria on Monday.

But on a day that a smiling Assad visited Baba Amr, the Homs suburb which has seen hundreds killed by his security forces in recent weeks, and the UN revised its estimate of Syria's death toll to more than 9,000 over the last year, no one was hailing an imminent breakthrough.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/27/syria-nod-un-peace-plan-scepticism

[pinto]

1. Yeah, Scepticism seems the very appropriate approach on al-Assad's commitments to dialogue.

And verifiable actions.