BAGHDAD — Syrian President Bashar Assad has agreed to a new U.N.-brokered peace plan focusing on containing the most violent areas of the country, then expanding to the entire nation, international envoy Kofi Annan said Tuesday.
At a news conference in Iran, Annan’s first step on a tour of Syria’s staunchest allies, he said the plan still must be presented to the opposition. But he said Assad suggested trying to calm specific areas a day earlier during talks in the Syrian capital aimed at ending the violence, which activists say has killed more than 17,000 people since March 2011.
The conflict in Syria has defied every international attempt to bring peace, including an earlier effort by Annan, and there was no sign that the plan the U.N.-Arab envoy described Tuesday will be a breakthrough. Although the government’s crackdown has made Assad an international pariah, he still has the support of strong allies such as Russia, Iran and China.
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