White House still confident in Annan plan

The White House indicated Monday that it was still confident in special joint U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s plan to bring about a political transition in Syria, citing the plan’s continued international support. “The fact is that there’s broad international support for Kofi Annan’s plan,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. “And it is that pressure that we believe and we hope will ultimately lead to a political transition in Syria that creates a better future for the Syrian people. And that future cannot happen with Assad still in power, in our view.” “The (U.S.) President does support Kofi Annan’s mission, does support the plan that Mr. Annan has put forward because we need that transition for the benefit of the Syrian people, and it is not one person alone who will bring about that transition in Syria, certainly not Kofi Annan,” Carney said. Carney described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s actions as “heinous” and that the United States “judge[s] him by his actions, not his words.” “There’s no question … that Assad has refused to live up to his own commitments, not for the first time. And that’s why whenever Assad says something that sounds good, sounds like progress, we remain highly skeptical, because we in the world have seen that he routinely fails to live up to his obligation,” the spokesman said. “It is so essential that the international community come together in support of the Annan plan and in support of the basic principle that Syria’s future can only be brighter if a brutal dictator who has overseen the massacre of his own people in these past 14 or 15 months steps aside and is no longer a part of the Syrian government,” Carney said.