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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Annan Says Syria Ceasefire 'Appears to be Holding'
2012-04-13
[An Nahar] U.N.-Arab League
...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...
said Thursday that a ceasefire in Syria appears to be holding but Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
must carry out all parts of an agreed peace plan, as U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
said plans were being made to send an observer team to Syria as soon as possible.

"Syria is apparently experiencing a rare moment of calm on the ground," Annan said in a statement released as he briefed the U.N. Security Council on the 13-month-old crisis in which the U.N. says more than 9,000 people have been killed.

A ceasefire came into effect in Syria on Thursday and Annan said: "I am encouraged by reports that the situation in Syria is relatively calm and that the cessation of hostilities appears to be holding."

Annan added, however, that the Syrian government must carry out all parts of the agreed peace plan which includes a withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from Syria's cities.

"All parties have obligations to implement fully the six-point plan. This includes both the military provisions of the plan and the commitment to move to a political process," he said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the bunker, his Excellency called a hurried meeting of his closest advisors. It was to be his last. They discussed the officers's efficiency rating system...
Ban Ki-moon said that plans were being made to send observers to Syria, starting with the dispatch of a U.N. peacekeeping general as early as Friday.

"We are working to send an observer team as promptly as possible," Ban told a news conference in Geneva, saying Thursday marked a "critical moment" in the U.N.'s six-point plan for ending the violence in Syria.

Ban said he had spoken with Annan who said he would dispatch Norwegian general Robert Mood and his team "as early as tomorrow (Friday) as a way of preparing this observer mission."

Speaking about the ceasefire which came into force at 6:00 am Damascus
...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
time (0300 GMT), the U.N. secretary general said: "The situation looks calmer. We are following it closely.

"The world is watching however with skeptical eyes," he added, since previous promises made by the Syrian regime "have not been kept."

"Once again I call on the government of Syria to fully implement ... the six-point plan," said Ban.

"I also call on the Syrian opposition to sustain the cessation of violence in all its forms," he said. "This is a time for a fundamental change of course. It's time to stop the killing."
Posted by:Fred

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