the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
urged the U.N. Security Council on Friday to reduce the number of unarmed military observers in Syria and put more stress on political efforts to end the conflict.
Ban recommends in a report that the mission in Syria with a "reduced military observer component" be redeployed to the capital Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
, from regional cities where the conflict has grown in recent weeks.
The divided Security Council must make a decision on the future of the 300 unarmed military observers and more than 120 civilian staff in Syria by July 20.
Tension in the debate on the future of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria is likely to increase in the wake of western calls for sanctions against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
despite the opposition of veto-wielding council members Russia and China.
The U.N. leader expressed alarm at the "dangerous trajectory of the conflict and the destructive dynamics at play" between the government and opposition.
He said the UNSMIS mandate should remain unchanged, though with the focus shifting from monitoring a ceasefire that has never taken hold toward a more political role.
"If UNSMIS were re-oriented in this manner, the mission would redeploy from the field to the capital to minimize risks, retaining core civilian and military observer capacities to focus on the spectrum of initiatives feeding into the political process," said the report.
Ban and U.N.-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...
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...want the mission to deal more with efforts to persuade the government and opposition to halt the violence, which activists say have left more than 16,500 dead in the past 16 months.
"From a central hub in Damascus, the civilian component would continue liaison and dialogue with opposition and government representatives in the provinces as security conditions allow."