BOCA RATON - It is too early to write off as a failure UN-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan's efforts to bring an end to 14-months of violence in Syria, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on Thursday.
Rice spoke to Reuters in Florida hours after two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus, Syrian state media said, the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since an uprising against President Bashar Assad began last year.
"I don't think it's time yet to say that the (UN truce monitoring) mission and the Annan initiative has failed," Rice said. "Although we've been skeptical of the Syrian government's readiness and willingness to implement its commitments, what Annan is trying to do makes eminent sense and we support it."
Earlier this week, Rice told the UN Security Council that Assad's government has not fully complied with any of the six points of Annan's peace plan, which calls for a withdrawal of heavy weapons and troops from towns, an end to violence on all sides and talks with the opposition on a "political transition."
