The UN Security Council on Thursday gave formal backing to an April 10 deadline that UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan agreed with the Syrian government to end its military offensive on protest cities, diplomats said.
A statement, in which the council “calls upon the Syrian government to implement urgently and visibly its commitments” was adopted at a meeting on Thursday, diplomats told AFP. The council said that depending on Annan’s reports on what President Bashar al-Assad has carried out, it will “consider further steps as appropriate”. The 15-nation council, which has been badly divided on Syria, gave its new boost to Annan’s peace mission just before the envoy briefed the UN General Assembly on his efforts to halt the government clampdown which the UN says has left more than 9,000 dead.
The statement was softened at Russia’s demand however, diplomats involved in the talks said. An initial proposal by western countries that the council “demands” that Syria pull back its troops and heavy weapons was changed to “calls” and “verifiably” was changed to “visibly.”
Meanwhile, a UN team dispatched by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to pave the way for eventual observers in Syria arrived in Damascus Thursday. The team headed by Norwegian general Robert Mood, a Middle East specialist, would be meeting Syrian authorities to discuss “the modalities of the eventual deployment of the UN supervising mission,” Ahmad Fawzi said. The former UN secretary general had told the Security Council on Monday that it should consider whether to send a mission to monitor events in Syria, where activists say more than 10,000 people have been killed in a brutal crackdown against protesters since March 2011.
The observers can be sent only after the Security Council passes a resolution ordering their deployment, Annan’s spokesman said. The Syrian regime has agreed to provide access to detention facilities throughout the country, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said. Jakob Kellenberger, who concluded a two-day visit to Damascus on Wednesday, said in a statement that Syrian authorities had agreed on procedures for visits to places of detention. “The agreement will be put into practice with an ICRC visit to people held in Aleppo Central Prison,” the statement said, without specifying a date.
