Against this background of mayhem and international indecision, Mr Annan admitted to the UN General Assembly on 7 June that his peace plan was not working, that failure to comply with it should not be ignored, and that "it must be made clear that there will be consequences if compliance is not forthcoming." Later the same day Mr Annan made it clear that he was referring principally to the Syrian government when he warned the Security Council that the crisis would soon spiral out of control and called  for "substantial pressure" on Damascus and penalties for undermining the peace plan. Mr Annan also confirmed to reporters that he was seeking to reinvigorate his mediation by canvassing – but not yet proposing – the creation of a "contact group" bringing together Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and regional players party to the conflict such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar and Turkey, with the aim of bypassing the six-point plan and mapping out a political transition in Syria under which Mr Asad would step aside and leave the way free for democratic elections – the so-called Yemeni option. This is a proposal which faces formidable opposition, not least American unwillingness to countenance Iran's inclusion in the group (according to US UN ambassador Susan  Rice  on  7 June,  "Iran is part of the problem in Syria at the present").  There is also the small matter of persuading Mr Asad to go quietly. And, of course, Russia and China remain profoundly ambivalent about international involvement in what they insist is a domestic Syrian affair. On 5 June Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, declared blandly after meeting in Beijing that "the international community should continue to support…Annan's mediation efforts and the UN monitoring mission to promote a political solution to the problem in Syria." Two days later, at the end of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – which groups Russia and China with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – the member states declared themselves "against military interference in the affairs of this region, enforced 'handover of power,' unilateral sanctions. Member states stress the need to stop any violence on the territory of Syria wherever it is coming from, they respect broad nationwide dialogue based on independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria." However, on the same day Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov refused to rule out the Yemeni option altogether when he said that Mr Asad's fate "is not a question for us, it is a question for the Syrian political forces and society…application of the so-called Yemen scenario to resolve the conflict in Syria is possible only if the Syrians themselves agree to it. The Yemeni scenario was discussed by the Yemenis themselves. If this scenario is discussed by Syrians themselves and is adopted by them, we are not against it."

Charles Snow