Kofi Annan ends Syria visit UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan reads a statement after his meeting with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad...

Kofi Annan ends Syria visit

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan reads a statement after his meeting with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus March 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

CAIRO - Kofi Annan, joint envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League (AL) wrapped up his two-day visit to Syria Sunday, expressing cautious optimism about his mission to solve the prolonged crisis in the country.

On his current mission, the former UN chief said that "It's going to be difficult, but we have to have hope."

He talked with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday and Sunday, focusing on the immediate end of violence, humanitarian aid as well as political dialogue.

The experienced diplomat's mediation efforts bring a new gleam of hope to Syria to restore security and stability after violent protests broke out a year ago. However, political analysts have different expectations of the outcome of his mission.

"The AL-UN envoy's work indicates a change in the international trends which call for a peaceful solution," said Saed Lawendy, a political expert at Egypt's Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

"Annan's mission will succeed and they may reach a coalition government including some figures from the opposition and others from Assad regime," Lawendy said.

The mission could prosper as Assad is enthusiastic towards finding a solution, and this has been revealed in the procedure of the referendum and the constitutional reforms, Lawendy said.

The analyst meanwhile believed that Syria's opposition groups, who refused to hold dialogues with the government before, will finally accept it after finding the international community insisting on ending the crisis in this way.

Tarek Sonouty, another researcher with the Ahram center, saw the success of Annan's mission "so hard" depending on the responses of both the Syrian government and the opposition. According to his prediction, Annan would continue his talks for several times with Assad's administration to find a solution.

"Both the opposition and Assad are stubborn, so they won't easily reach a suggested compromise," Sonouty said.

Sonouty said Annan's mission was "too late" and came after the situation became too hard to be settled. He thought Assad's attempts to tease the opposition such as the referendum and reforms were also late and it should have come at the very beginning of the demonstrations.

Mustafa Sayed, professor of political science at Cairo University, was even more pessimistic. "It is impossible to reach a dialogue under the current circumstances," he said, referring to the continuing violence.

Annan will try to reach a compromise between the Syrian government and the opposition, but no breakthrough was forecast in the near future, he said.

First, the opposition groups had no trust in the government. Second, they want a regime change, which the Syrian government will definitely refuse, said Sayed.

A power sharing model is a possible option. But as the Syrian government has kept control of the situation, it is unlikely to accept such a proposal at the moment, he said.

Despite the recent reports that several Syrian army figures had defected, there was no major split within the current government, Sayed said, "The situation will continue for some time before a solution is found."