Syria's Ceasefire for Pessimists

Few expect that the four-day truce in Syria‘s civil war scheduled to take effect Friday will hold, much less serve as the prelude to a more sustained peace process. (Activists have already reported that fighting was occurring near a military base in Syria’s north.) But the cease-fire proposed by U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, planned to coincide with this weekend’s ‘Id al-Adha Muslim holiday, is likely an attempt to lay down a marker for a future mechanism to end a war that neither side is currently ready to stop. The veteran Algerian diplomat could take some small consolation in the fact that even if they have no intention of implementing the agreement, both sides felt obliged to agree to his plan rather than be seen saying no to the U.N. Instead, each side will seek to blame the other for thwarting Brahimi’s mission.