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Assad Likely to Wriggle Out of Latest UN Peace Plan for Syria
(AP-Washington Post) The UN insists a fragile truce it brokered in Syria is holding, even though regime forces have been hammering the city of Homs with artillery for days. Assad has made it brutally clear that he won't step aside, trying to snuff out a 13-month uprising with tank fire and mass arrests. Even though he ostensibly accepted Annan's plan, he's likely to wriggle out of it since he seems largely insulated from pressure. He does not face a threat of Western military intervention. Poorly armed rebel fighters don't pose a danger to his rule. And Assad has the backing of Russia, China and Iran, along with key groups at home. "If the end game is the fall of the Assad regime, I don't think we are any closer to the end game," said Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center.