This may be a record fold even for the spineless Kofi Annan. According to news reports, including a lengthy video of Annan speaking, he has capitulated to Syrian strongman Bashar Assad's barely-week-old demand that UN troops not be stationed along the Syrian-Lebanon border. I predicted at the time that the UN would cave. Sometimes it's distressing to be right.
Details:UN chief Kofi Annan said Friday Damascus would enforce an arms embargo on Hizbullah in accordance with a UN resolution that halted Israel's war with the Lebanese group. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with the Syrian President in the Ash-Shaab Presidential Palace in Damascus, Annan said Bashar Assad had promised him he would halt all weapons to the Lebanese resistance group under UNSC 1701.
Syria also promised to boost the number of it own guards along the Lebanese-Syrian border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese Army "where possible," Annan said.
"While stating Syrian objections to the presence of foreign forces along the Syrian-Lebanese border , the [Syrian] president committed to me that Syria shall take all necessary measures to implement in full paragraph 15 of Resolution 1701 [which] deals with the arms embargo and rearmament" of Hizbullah, Annan said.
Is it any wonder that practically no Israeli of any political stripe has the slightest trust in Kofi Annan? By assigning Syria the responsibility to enforce the arms embargo against Hezbollah, Annan has truly put a ravenous fox in charge of guarding the henhouse. It's not credible that Annan doesn't know that Syria was the principal supplier of weapons to Hezbollah.
A more craven, unsavory character to head the UN can hardly be imagined. He has done more to destroy the UN's credibility (when it's had precious little to spare) than anyone else in the whole, wide world.
The Lebanese Government is disarming Hizballah:
http://powerandcontrol.b*gspot.com/2006/08/hizballah-losing-more-hardware.html
Hizballah Losing More Hardware
Why it is in their interest to do so:
http://powerandcontrol.bl*gspot.com/2006/09/power-struggle.html
Power Struggle
and
http://powerandcontrol.bl*gspot.com/2006/08/blockade-and-prisoner-swap.html
The Blockade and the Prisoner Swap
A more craven, unsavory character to head the UN can hardly be imagined.
Doesn't Pres. Clinton still want the job?
(I can think of one more craven and unsavory character than Kofi)
Damn you XWL, you beat me to the punch.
P.S.-I can't wait to see what wonderous solution he comes up with after meeting with the Iranians.
A more craven, unsavory character to head the UN can hardly be imagined.
No imagination necessary. Kurt Waldheim.
A craven, unsavory character is now part of the job description.
We all know Maddy Albright would be even worse than Clinton and Annan.
Of the many perjoratives that could accurately be applied to Jimmy Carter and his Presidency, craven and unsavory are surely among the least suited. He may have been a miserable leader of the free world, but at least he was not a theif like Annan or a liar like Clinton.
I agree K A has shown nothing resembling a spine (joint the rest of the world's politicians) but he's holding together a paper tiger and has real reasons not to take a stance on... well, nearly anything. He's holding together a failed organisation. Make no mistake, people, real people, just like you and me with hopes and dreams and a right to live - they are dying at the hands of both the Israeli and Hizballah - and people have the ignorant, horrific oppinion that they (the faceless masses) deserve to die because of (insert reason here). Sadly, thanks to the oxymoronic "war on terror" slogan, most people think Israel can use it's military to demolish civilian buildings with shells and rockets and claim the occupants were entirely terrorists... and do so without any proof. Odds are they were someone's home once. Probably the owners had fled but who's going to rebuild their home and restore their possessions? And maybe some people didn't get out in time. Imagine what the response would be if American city blocks were being levelled? Alas, no evidence of guilt is required for murder these days as long as a government does it in the name of anti-terrorism. The ONLY SOLUTION to terrorism is to remove the reason why large numbers of people would be willing to kill and die for a cause. Why this simple logic escapes so many is a mystery.
Random,
Interesting isn't it that all the evidence that Israel was attacking purely civilian sites has collapsed in a failure of credibility as its been shown to be faked and staged reporting.