‘UK, US want Annan Syria plan shelved’

The plan secretly discussed by British Prime Minister David Cameron and the US president Barrack Obama during the G20 summit in Mexico will center on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton persuading Annan to call off his plans in favor of forming a contact group on Syria to pursue a transition of power from Assad to another person based on Yemen model.

“Those of us who had bilaterals thought there was just enough out of those meetings to make it worth pursuing the objective of negotiating a transitional process in Syria,” The Guardian quoted a senior British official as saying.

This comes as Britain and its western allies have so far rejected accusations that they are trying to undermine Annan’s six-point plan for Syria to set the stage for Assad’s ouster.

Annan’s current plan seeks “an inclusive Syrian-led political process to address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people” without any mentioning of a power transition.

Cameron said on Tuesday that Syria is “in danger of descending into a bloody civil war” and there is little time to take action to settle the situation.

The report by The Guardian, seen in the light of Cameron’s comment and former reports of Britain’s covert military operations in support of anti-Assad’s government rebels in Syria, shows Britain has been planning such a civil war to impede Annan’s plans for a Syrian truce and make the case for an alternative based on Assad’s ouster.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said last week that London “would be greatly increasing further [its] support” for Syrian rebels in case London and its allies fail to persuade Russia and China to back a United Nations Security Council resolution against the Syrian government.

While Hague did not go into the details, the possible nature of the “support” was uncovered after The Daily Star confirmed last week that Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS) and its spy agency MI6 are setting up camps in Syria.

Later, the paper also reported that British spy agency MI6 and its American counterpart CIA have been operating spy satellites on Syria that listened on Syrian government forces and passed the intelligence to rebels through spies on the ground.

According to The Guardian Britain and the US want Assad government to take part in a conference in Geneva in which he should commit to hand power over to another person, if they can get Annan to play their game.

The conference would include the representatives of the Syrian government and rebels, key regional countries and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

London and Washington, which have reportedly raised the matter with Russia, want the conference to be chaired by Annan that would help them avoid further speculations on impeding his Syrian initiative.

The meeting would be held by the end of this month and seek a power transition through elections in 18 months time.

AMR/JR/HE

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