The U.N. undersecretary general had been in the region waiting for a visa to go to Damascus
...The
City of Jasminis the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti...
. But
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
's government did not respond to U.N. requests, diplomats said.
"I am deeply disappointed that I have not been able to visit Syria, despite my repeated requests to meet Syrian officials at the highest level to discuss the humanitarian situation and the need for unhindered access to the people affected by the violence," Amos said in a statement.
The rejection came as Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary general who has been named as the international envoy on the Syria crisis, prepares to head to the region.
Annan was to hold talks in New York with U.N. Secretary General
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
on Wednesday. Diplomats said Annan was expected to leave for the Middle East on Friday -- probably for Cairo to meet the head of the 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...
, Nabil al-Arabi.