Here we go again. Iran on Tuesday “reaffirmed” its full support for UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan aimed at ending the Syria crisis, saying that the plan should be fully implemented to restore stability.

Iranian officials should be laughing to themselves when they reiterate support for the Annan initiative because they know well that the former UN chief’s six-point plan will never get off the ground and that it is only providing time for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to continue its brutal crackdown on dissent.

Annan was in Tehran on Tuesday after talks with Assad in Damascus on Monday and following a “Friends of Syria” meeting in Geneva last month to which Iran, Damascus’s staunchest regional ally, was not invited.

Iran, which is reportedly sending weapons and offering various other forms of assistance to the Syrian regime, was excluded from the Geneva talks because of following US and European Union objections.

The Geneva meeting agreed on a plan for a political transition in Syria modelled along the Annan initiative. It does not include an explicit call for Assad to quit, although the West and the opposition made it clear it saw no role for him in a unity government.

Ideally, Damascus wants the international community to keep quiet and allow it to continue its carnage. More than 15,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands wounded since the anti-regime rebellion began in March last year. The Syrian regime would not stop at anything to remove any challenge to its iron grip on power.

Iran has made no secret of its support for the Assad regime. Other countries following the same thinking as Iran include Russia and China. They are paying lip service to the UN-Arab League-backed Annan plan for the simple reason that no one will come up with a new initiative as long as the former UN chief is doing his round through world capitals carrying his plan.

Annan said on Tuesday that he wished to have Iran on board the effort to find a solution. In reality, Iran, along with Russia, is very much part of the problem.

The US had tried to get Russia and Iran involved in the effort to end the bloodshed in Syria, but both Moscow and Tehran skilfully evaded the trap because they knew perfectly well that they would never be able to produce a satisfactory formula to settle the conflict while keeping the regime in power.

It is a Russian-Chinese-Iranian charade and the world knows it. The international community should call the bluff by coming up with an alternative plan that includes the use of military options to put an end to the daily slaughter of the Syrian people.