UN Security Council to vote on Syria observer team

PanARMENIAN.Net - The United Nations Security Council is to vote on a resolution to send an advance team of 10 to 12 observers to Syria in days to monitor a ceasefire that has been "relatively respected", a spokesman for UN envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday, April 13, Reuters reported.

A larger mission of up to 250 observers would be sent later, Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular news briefing in Geneva. He declined to say which countries might supply staff to the mission, but said many of the likely countries already had staff in the region who could move quickly.

Fawzi said the UN Security Council would discuss a draft resolution on Friday, and if it voted in favor of the resolution "we can proceed with deployment without further ado", Fawzi said.

Syria's government and opposition committed to the ceasefire agreement that began at 6 a.m. on Thursday, part of a six-point plan for peace brokered by Annan with the backing of the UN Security Council.

But Fawzi urged movement on the other points of Annan's plan, including the withdrawal of Syrian armed forces from populated areas, a condition that Syria was supposed to meet in the 48 hours leading up to the ceasefire deadline.

Annan's plan also stipulates that Syria must grant access to humanitarian aid and free movement for journalists. Foreign media have been largely unable to report on the conflict from within the country in recent months.

"We have been receiving assurance from the government that they are indeed granting numbers of visas to numbers of journalists. The last letter we received this morning listed 53 journalists who had been given visas by the Syrian authorities.