Offering a gloomy assessment of the nearly month-old cease-fire in Syria, Kofi Annan, its main architect, said Tuesday, May 8, that despite some decrease in military assaults, continuing “serious violations” could undermine the full peace plan, The New York Times reported. Briefing the U.N. Security Council, Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, put the main onus on the government of President Assad, saying it had “greater responsibility in terms of its size to really do whatever it can to reduce the violence.” Hervé Ladsous, the head of U.N. peacekeeping operations worldwide, said that while the use of heavy weapons and big military campaigns had been reduced, there was a quieter crackdown under way, including mass arrests. The basic conclusion among the envoys present was that although the implementation of the plan was clearly flawed, there was no real alternative.