Despite the Syrian government's commitments to accept a peace plan put forward by Kofi Annan, the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy, the situation in the country is still likely to further deteriorate due to both internal and external factors. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned on March 29 that there is no time to waste, and the world is waiting for the Syrian government to translate its commitments into action.

The Syrian opposition has continued to receive strong moral support and other forms of help from Western countries, and showed no will for political reconciliation. The Syrian government is losing leeway in eliminating armed opposition through large-scale military operations. It cannot afford to lose control of the security situation while facilitating the political process. Overall, the Syrian government is under unprecedented pressure.

The Charter of the United Nations was established to maintain international peace and security. The United Nations can take action to stop aggression, but cannot use force to change a country's regime.

The United Nations has been facing new challenges in fulfilling its tasks since the beginning of this century. Certain Western powers believe that when a government fails to protect its people whose lives are seriously threatened, the international community has the right to exercises its responsibility to protect the people, namely, launching so-called humanitarian intervention.

Strictly speaking, there is no clear definition of humanitarian intervention yet. Developing countries do not oppose all forms of humanitarian intervention, but are worried that certain countries conducting intervention may pursue self-interest and deliberately change the regime of a sovereign state, making it more difficult to resolve long-standing national problems.

The international community should adopt a responsible attitude toward the Syrian people and comply with the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter by taking concrete actions to make Annan's peace plan a real turning point in the political settlement of the Syrian crisis.

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