(CNN) David Schenker - President Assad has agreed to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's six-point plan to end the bloodshed in Syria. Al-Assad was wise to do so. The UN initiative is a boon to the dictator and a setback for the opposition. The plan not only perpetuates, but legitimates al-Assad's continued rule. In accepting this UN roadmap, Assad, as usual, is playing for time. The longer the conflict drags on, the more Islamist the opposition is becoming. Counterproductive UN efforts like the Annan plan will do little to reverse this trend. The writer is director of the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2012-03-29 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive