UN Security Council decides to send advance team of unarmed observers to Syria
The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution authorizing the observers to "liaise with the parties and to begin to report on the implementation of a full cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties."
The Security Council "expresses its intention, subject to a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties, to establish immediately, after consultations between the secretary-general and the Syrian government, a United Nations supervision mission in Syria to monitor a cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties," the resolution said, Xinhua reports.
The UN mission is also mandated to monitor the implementation of the six-point peace plan by Kofi Annan, the joint special envoy of the UN and Arab League for Syria, the resolution said.
Annan's six-point plan, widely backed by the international community, calls for the withdrawal of heavy weapons and troops from population centers, a daily halt in fighting for the delivery of humanitarian aid and treatment for the wounded, as well as talks between the government and opposition.
The Syrian government has accepted Annan's six-point plan and the April 10 deadline to put an early end to the fighting in the Middle East country, which has been plunged into the crisis since March 2011.
The advance team, drawn from various UN peacekeeping or observer missions in the region, will be deployed soon after the approval of the Security Council, Ahmad Fawzi, Annan's spokesman said earlier in Geneva.
The full mission would reach 250 observers, Fawzi said, and as is common on such missions, Syria would have ultimate approval over the nationalities involved.
Vitaly Churkin, the Russian permanent representative to the UN, told the Security Council after the vote that the revised draft resolution is "more balanced and better reflect the realities on the ground."
Details at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-04/14/c_122980082.htm
