the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
as biased and called his comments "outrageous" after he blamed the regime for widespread cease-fire violations, the latest sign of trouble for an international peace plan many expect to fail.
In new fighting Saturday, activists said regime forces battled army defectors near Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
's summer palace in a coastal village and shelled a Damascus
...Capital of the last overtly fascist regime in the world...
suburb in pursuit of gunnies. State media said government troops foiled an attempt by gunnies in rubber boats to land on Syria's coast, the first reported attempt by rebels to infiltrate from the sea.
The regime's verbal attack on the UN secretary general raised new concerns that Assad is playing for time to avoid compliance with a plan that could eventually force him out of office.
Under special 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...'s six-point road map, a cease-fire is to be followed by the deployment of as many as 300 UN truce monitors and talks between Assad and the opposition on Syria's political future. The head of the observer team, Norwegian Maj Gen. Robert Mood, is to arrive in Damascus on Sunday to assume command, said front man Neeraj Singh.
Annan's April 12 cease-fire deadline has been widely ignored. The regime continues to attack opposition strongholds, while rebel fighters keep targeting security forces with roadside kabooms and shooting ambushes. Defying a major truce provision, the Syrian military failed to withdraw tanks and soldiers from the streets.
Ban and Annan have cited violations by both sides, but generally portrayed the regime as the main aggressor. On Friday, Ban said Syria's repression of civilians reached an "intolerable stage" and demanded that the regime "live up to its promises to the world." His comments came just hours after a suicide kaboom the regime blamed on anti-government "terrorists" killed 10 people in Damascus.
An editorial Saturday in the state-run Tishrin newspaper said Ban has avoided discussing rebel violence in favor of "outrageous" statements against the Syrian government. The editorial said the international community has applied a double standard, ignoring "crimes and terrorist acts" against Syria and thus encouraging more violence, according to excerpts carried by the state-run news agency
...and if you can't believe the state-run news agency who can you believe?...
Sana.
Mass protests against Assad erupted in March 2011, but gradually turned into an insurgency in response to a violent regime crackdown. Assad's regime denies it faces a popular uprising, claiming it is being targeted by a foreign-led terrorist conspiracy.
Saturday's comments were the regime's harshest against the UN since Syria announced last month it would abide by the Annan plan. The Syrian opposition and its Western backers argue Assad is not sincere and just buying time to consolidate his hold on Syria.
The regime "wants to make the UN a party to the conflict, rather than a mediator, and to stretch out the process to prevent any kind of serious change," Rami Khoury, an analyst at the American University of Beirut, said of Saturday's editorial.
However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
the regime and its supporters argue that the world intentionally ignores rebel cease-fire violations, such as assassinations of security officials, said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group think tank who has traveled in Syria.
"In the regime's narrative, its use of force is only a reaction to such assaults," he said. "Officials and sympathizers cling to the idea that they are fighting a legitimate struggle against a fifth column of beturbanned goons."
Russia, Syria's main ally, repeatedly has demanded that more attention be paid to rebel violations of the Annan plan.
In fighting Saturday, government troops exchanged fire with about 30 soldiers after they defected at a military base near Assad's summer palace in the coastal village of Burj Islam, according to Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso and the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.
The shooting, described as intense, lasted for 15 to 30 minutes, the activists said.
Syrian troops also intercepted gunnies trying to land on the Syrian coast in rubber boats, the Syrian news agency said. The agency said the navy forced the boats to flee, but some Syrian service members were killed or maimed. The battle took place 30 to 35 kilometers from the Turkish border, Sana said.
Syrian authorities have said in the past that they clashed with rebels trying to cross from neighboring Leb or Turkey.
In Leb, authorities confiscated weapons found aboard a ship intercepted off the Lebanese coast and jugged 11 crew members.
The ship reportedly sailed from Libya and stopped in Egypt and the port of Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of thich is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, Leb, en route to Syria. Lebanese media reported that the weapons were intended for Syrian rebels.
The Lebanese army said the "Lutfallah II" carried a Sierra Leone flag and had three containers filled with "large amounts of weapons and ammunition" on board.