United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has accused Syria of violating a pledge to withdraw heavy weapons from population centers and demanded that the govt. conform to that commitment "directly."
In a press release released Thursday, Mr. Ban says U.N. observers in Syria have reported a continued presence of heavy weapons, military equipment and troops in civilian areas "in contravention" of an April 12 truce backed by government and rebel forces. The U.N. chief says he's "deeply troubled" by the observers' findings.
Mr. Ban also condemned violence by either side in Syria's year-long conflict and urged the parties, particularly the Syrian government, with the intention that the 15 unarmed U.N. truce monitors can operate effectively.
A spokesman for international envoy Kofi Annan said Thursday U.N. monitors inspected the positioning of an explosion that flattened a block of homes within the central city of Hama at the previous day, killing not less than 16 people. Ahmad Fawzi said he had no immediate word on what the observers saw.
The Syrian government blamed the Hama incident on "terrorists" whom it said were preparing explosives that detonated prematurely. But, opposition activists blamed government forces, saying artillery shells destroyed the houses. Activists also reported in any case seven people killed in violence with regards to the Syrian conflict on Thursday.
Syria has said it'll honor the truce and other elements of Mr. Annan's peace plan for the rustic, but will reply to attacks by foreign-backed "terrorists" whom it says are behind the 13-month opposition uprising. Syrian Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud said Thursday that terrorists have breached the cease-fire greater than 1,300 times since April 12.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said it blames most of Syria's violence on armed opposition groups, accusing them of resorting to regional terrorism. Moscow is an established ally of autocratic Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria's main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Council, called for the U.N. Security Council to carry an emergency meeting to target protecting Syrian civilians from government attacks.
The SNC suffered a setback in its efforts to unite Syria's opposition factions when the son of a former Syrian prime minister announced the formation of a rival government-in-exile on Thursday.
Nofal al-Dawalibi made the declaration in Paris, saying his group could be more representative than the SNC, which he described as being dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. He also showed a video of several Syrian rebel commanders pledging allegiance to him. Dawalibi said his group wants the international community to hold out air strikes and establish no-fly zones and humanitarian corridors to guard civilians.
Dawalibi is the son of Maarouf al-Dawalibi, who served as Syria's prime minister before Bashar al-Assad's family took power within the 1960s. It isn't clear how much influence the recent opposition group has inside Syria. Several SNC members criticized Dawalibi's announcement as unhelpful to the opposition cause.
Meanwhile, U.N. officials said they're working to expand the observer mission in Syria to about 300 personnel inside the coming weeks. But, Carnegie Middle East Center Director Paul Salem says that Syria's continued violence will make it clear to observers that the cease-fire isn't being implemented.
"i believe it will likely be clear to the monitors very soon that this cease-fire is definitely not holding in an important and final way," said Salem.
Salem also said the planned contingent of 300 monitors will not be enough to calm the location.
"Syria is an overly large country," he said. "The violence has moved from one location to a different. It'll be a challenge for the monitors to aim to be in every single place forever. It is also the case, i believe, that the govt will claim that once violence does erupt, they'll claim that it started from the rebels and they're just responding."
The United Nations estimates that greater than 9,000 people had been killed in Syria's crackdown at the uprising, while activist groups put the death toll at greater than 11,000.
From WhatNewsToday.net
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