... sometimes described as
The Woman to Call at 3 a.m.and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another James Baker...
's Syria envoy that it was unaware of any plans by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
to leave power.
Senior Russian diplomats said they also told special envoy Fred Hof that Moscow was willing to agree changes to international 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 peace plan for Syria as long as they kept the tattered initiative alive.
"I do not know anything about such plans by the Syrian president," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the state news agency RIA Novosti when asked after the meeting if Moscow was aware of any intention of Assad to step down.
Hof's visit came as pressure mounted on Russia - a Soviet-era ally of Syria believed to have the world's greatest remaining influence on the regime - to back a political transition that would ultimately see Assad go.
Moscow has publicly distanced itself from Assad in recent weeks while still supplying his army with weapons and adamantly vowing to resist all calls for foreign military intervention aimed at halting the 15-month crisis.
Russia has made a counter-proposal - met with great skepticism by the United States - that would see regional players such as Iran sit down with world powers and try to negotiate a joint strategy suitable to all Syrians.