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Syria envoy Kofi Annan called it quits Thursday, confirming a growing conclusion that international diplomacy is having no impact on the 17-month-old crisis and that the only path in Syria now appears to be one of fighting toward a violent end.

"When the Security Council failed to heed Mr. Annan's repeated calls for collective and significant consequences for non-compliance with its prior resolutions, those members who blocked this action effectively made Mr. Annan's mission impossible," said Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, in a statement Thursday.

The death knell of Annan’s efforts was sounded last month, when Russia and China vetoed a Security Council resolution on Syria for the third time in the course of the crisis. Much more at http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/0802/Kofi-Annan-quits
-as-UN-s-Syria-envoy.-Is-diplomacy-at-an-end

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