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UN chief calls for change in Syria mission

Dunya News

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has recommended shifting the monitoring mission in Syria.

Bans report to the council, delivered to the Security Council on Friday, recommends the emphasis of the mission change from military observers - who suspended most of their monitoring activities on June 16 because of increased violence - to the roughly 100 civilian staff focusing on a political solution and issues like human rights.The deeply divided council must make a decision on what to do with the mission before July 20, when its mandate expires. The council is scheduled to discuss the issue on Wednesday and is due to vote on July 18.The 15-member council approved in April the deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria to oversee a ceasefire that has failed to take hold. The mission is part of a six-point peace plan proposed by international envoy Kofi Annan.Under Bans recommendation, the mission would keep its current mandate for up to 300 unarmed observers, but significantly fewer likely would be needed to support the new focus.No consensus on military optionA meeting of more than 100 nations opposed to President Bashar al-Assad also met on Friday in Paris and called for UN-backed sanctions to force Syria into a political transition. But the government representatives attending the Friends of Syria meeting refrained from a call for military action to end the 16-month conflict.The meeting concluded that Assad could not be part of the transition and called on the Security Council to pass a resolution authorising sanctions and diplomatic action but which explicitly disallows the threat or use of armed force.The six-point plan peace plan drawn up by Annan has fallen flat, and violence has climbed to levels even higher than before the plan was proposed.Members of Syrias opposition at the Paris meeting said the international community is still moving too slowly, and called for a military measure to end the crisis.The meeting came amid reports that Manaf Tlas, a Syrian general and personal friend of Assad, was travelling to Parisafter defecting from his position as a brigade commander in the elite Republican Guard.Lauren Fabius, the French foreign minister, called the defection a serious blow to Assads government, a sign that even his inner circle is starting to realise that you cannot support a butcher, he said.Missing powersThe meeting follows a gathering in Tunis and another in Istanbul, both of which called in vain for tougher action against Assads government.China and Russia did not attend either of those meetings, in which the United States, France, Britain, Germany as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar gathered with a group of more than 60 nations, including most European Union and Arab League states.On Friday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged world powers to show Russia and China they would pay a price for impeding progress toward a democratic transition in Syria.