Annan’s “Mission Impossible” in Syria

SYRIA- Syria granted two top international diplomats permission to enter the country after days of delay, an offer that came even as Damascus bore new scrutiny for blocking a humanitarian mission from accessing the site of a month-long government siege.

The Syrian regime agreed Monday to allow visits by two other prominent international emissaries it had previously rebuffed — former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the new special envoy to Syria, and U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos.

Former UN chief Kofi Annan, who has been named special envoy to Syria for the UN and Arab League, will head to Damascus on March 10, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told reporters on Monday.

"Kofi Annan told me that Syria will receive him on March 10 and that he would arrive in Cairo on March 7," Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told reporters at the group's Cairo headquarters.

Annan will be accompanied by his deputy, former Palestinian foreign minister Nasser al-Qudwa, on their first mission to Syria, where a government crackdown on dissent has left thousands dead in a year.

Nasser al- Qudwa, a Palestinian diplomat, was appointed on Monday as deputy to Annan and is expected to travel with him to Syria, El-araby said.

Qudwa, a nephew of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, is a member of current President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and has previously served as a foreign minister and an envoy to the United Nations.

Qudwa told reporters in Cairo on Monday that he is hopeful a political solution could be reached in Syria and described his new mission as "very difficult," according to the Palestinian News Agency WAFA.

Qudwa was appointed after consultations with Annan and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the League said.

The pair are due in Cairo on Wednesday for talks the following day with Arabi, and will fly to Damascus on Saturday, the Arab League chief said.

Annan was last month chosen as international troubleshooter to try to end the conflict. Qudwa was named as his deputy earlier on Monday.

Annan and Qudwa are acting under a UN General Assembly mandate as well as Arab League resolutions on the crisis in Syria.

Press reports said that Kofi Annan’s appointment as joint UN/Arab League Special Envoy arguably offers a chance to rescue fading prospects for a negotiated transition in Syria. It must not be squandered.

Amos said the aim of her visit is "to urge all sides to allow unhindered access for humanitarian relief workers so they can evacuate the wounded and deliver essential supplies."

In a message welcoming her visit, Syria said she would be able to visit "some areas" — making it unlikely she will see some of the areas hardest-hit by Assad's forces, such as the Baba Amro neighborhood in Homs, which government forces took from rebels last week after a month-long siege.

Amos is to arrive Wednesday and leave Friday.

A UN General Assembly resolution passed on February 16 demands that Syria "cease all violence and protect its population," free everyone detained in connection with the unrest, withdraw troops from urban areas and guarantee freedom of demonstration.

It also insists on "full and unhindered access and movement" for Arab League monitors and international news media "to determine the truth about the situation on the ground."

Meanwhile, AFP reports Tuesday that Syrian forces pursued armed rebels on Tuesday in a number of flashpoint areas ahead of a peace mission by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, as a top US senator called for air strikes to protect civilians.

Soldiers in tanks and armored carriers stormed the town of Herak in the southern province of Daraa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that it was not possible immediately to determine whether there had been casualties, AFP report added.

And army deserters clashed with troops overnight in villages of Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria, while in Hama province of central Syria, troops backed by tanks circled the town of Tibet Al Imam, the Britain-based Observatory told AFP.

The Red Cross, meanwhile, is still negotiated for a fourth day with Syrian authorities to be allowed to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded from the battered Baba Amro rebel district of the city of Homs in the centre of the country, according to other press reports.

More than 7,500 people have been killed in an almost year-long crackdown by Syrian forces of protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the United Nations says, and world pressure has been growing for an initiative to end the bloodshed.

The protests have spread as President Bashar al-Assad's regime forces have cracked down on dissent, and some in the opposition have taken up arms to defend themselves and attack government troops. Activists put the death toll at more than 8,000.