UN Syrian mission is to finish
The United Nations' four-month-old observer mission in Syria will withdraw from the country next week, diplomats and UN officials said today, yet another blow to the world body's efforts to broker an end to the conflict.
"The mandate of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) is over on the 19th of August ... UNSMIS will fade out," said French UN ambassador Gerard Araud, who is the president of the Security Council for the month of August.
Speaking to reporters after a closed-door meeting of the council, he said conditions for renewing the mandate of the observer mission had not been met.
The death of the mission cast further doubt on the viability of outgoing international mediator Kofi Annan's moribund six-point peace plan for Syria. Some Western diplomats describe that plan as doomed, while others suggest it could still be salvaged.
Mr Annan, a former UN secretary-general and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will step down on August 31st. He has criticised the 15-nation council for failing to agree on steps that could have pressured Syria's government and rebels to stop fighting.
Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Mr Annan's peace plan was still relevant. He added that the permanent Security Council members - Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain - and key regional players would meet on Syria in New York tomorrow morning to discuss the crisis.
"We're sorry that the UNSMIS mandate is coming to an end," Mr Churkin told reporters. "We believe that those members of the council who insisted that UNSMIS can't continue did not really show commitment to ending hostilities and to working toward a political settlement in Syria."
Russia had repeatedly called for the monitors to remain in Syria. But the United States opposed keeping them in the country as long as Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's forces escalated their 17-month-old onslaught against an increasingly well armed, experienced and determined opposition.
Moscow, with the aid of Beijing, has vetoed three resolutions criticising and threatening sanctions against Syria. That has led to an impasse on the council, Western envoys say. Moscow blames the deadlock on Washington and its allies, saying they are supporting the rebels in pursuit of "regime change."
The Security Council said last month it would only renew the mandate of the mission, which was deployed in April to monitor a truce that never took hold, if the world body confirmed a "cessation of the use of heavy weapons and a reduction in the level of violence by all sides sufficient" for it to operate.
In an August 10th letter to the Security Council, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said this has not been achieved and the mission "has not been able to exercise its key functions of monitoring the cessation of violence."
