U.N. approves 30-day extension for Syria monitors

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to extend a monitoring mission in Syria for 30 days, keeping alive a key part of international envoy Kofi Annan's faltering plan to end the 16-month conflict that has killed thousands of people.

With the mandate for the mission set to expire at midnight EDT Friday (0400 GMT Saturday), the 15-member council regrouped to approve a simple extension proposed by Britain after Russia and China vetoed on Thursday a bid by Western states to threaten Damascus with sanctions if it did not stop using heavy weapons.

Russia, a key ally of Syria, dropped its initial objections to Britain's brief five-paragraph resolution on Friday after it was broadened at the last minute to require both government forces and rebel fighters to take steps to halt the violence.

"I'm pleased ... its requirements are addressed to all sides in Syria," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters. He said the Western-backed resolution he vetoed on Thursday was "loaded with one-sided political requirements."

Friday's resolution says the council would consider a further extension to the mission after 30 days only if the United Nations "confirms the cessation of the use of heavy weapons and a reduction in the level of violence by all sides sufficient" to allow the U.N. mission in Syria to operate.

The mission's 300 unarmed observers, whose role has been to monitor a failed April 12 ceasefire in Syria brokered by Annan, suspended their activity on June 16 because of increased risk from rising violence. There are also some 100 civilian staff working on a political solution and monitoring rights problems.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces have killed more than 15,000 people since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters began in March 2011, some Western leaders say. Damascus says rebels have killed several thousand of its security forces.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant described the new resolution as a last chance for the U.N. mission in Syria.

"If over the next 30 days there is a change in that dynamic and those conditions are met then of course the Security Council, on a recommendation by the secretary-general, will look again at the future of UNSMIS," Lyall Grant told reporters.

"But if the situation does not change then obviously UNSMIS will be withdrawn after 30 days," he said.

SECURITY COUNCIL 'DEAD END'

A spokesman for Annan declined to comment on the extension of the mission on Friday. Annan, who had sought a tough resolution to save his disintegrating peace plan, had on Thursday voiced disappointment at the veto, saying the council had failed to take "strong and concerted action."

Annan's plan calls for an end to violence, a Syrian-led political process, access for aid, the release of arbitrarily detained people, freedom of movement for journalists and the freedom to protest peacefully. The U.N. monitoring mission is crucial to helping implement the plan.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Washington had reluctantly acceded to the new resolution, but described it simply as an exit plan for the U.N. mission. She said the Security Council had hit a "substantive dead end."

"Today's vote to extend UNSMIS for a final period of 30 days was not the resolution the United States had hoped to adopt in the first instance. Our strong preference was to adopt the resolution that was regrettably vetoed yesterday," Rice said.

The United States says it will turn to alternatives such as the "Friends of Syria" grouping of allied countries to find ways to pressure Assad after the Security Council's failure to set consequences for Syria's violations of Annan's plan.

But with key allies such as Britain pushing for the brief extension of the U.N. Syria mission, the United States withheld its veto on Friday to avoid being seen as torpedoing one of the last diplomatic initiatives under way to address the crisis.

"We will continue our political support to the opposition, our non-lethal assistance to the opposition. We will strengthen and intensify our sanctions ... We will increase the amount of humanitarian assistance we provide," Rice told reporters.

AN EXIT PLAN?

Rice said the resolution passed on Friday would "allow (UNSMIS) to withdraw safely and in an orderly fashion."

But Russia's Churkin rejected her description of the extension. He said it was not allowing the mission to withdraw - it was allowing it to continue its operations.

"We hope that the mandate will be extended (after the 30 days) under circumstances which would allow the monitors to continue their work safely," Churkin said.

The Security Council vote ended several hectic days of U.N. diplomacy where the United States and its European allies faced off against Russia and China over the way forward on Syria as violence in the country escalated.

Syrian government forces fought to recapture border posts and parts of Damascus from rebels on Friday, seeking to take back the initiative following a bomb attack this week that killed four of Assad's top security aides.

China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong said on Friday that Beijing believed it was important for Annan to continue his mediation efforts and that he was "very happy to see that the council has come back to the right track."

"The future of Syria must be determined by the people in Syria and the Syrian issues must be resolved peacefully and through peaceful means, that's why Kofi Annan's mediation is very important and we should give him support," Li said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended shifting the emphasis of the work of the UNSMIS from monitoring the nonexistent truce to pursuing a political solution to the crisis.

Diplomats said only half of the 300 unarmed observers would be needed for Ban's suggested shift in focus. The rest would return to their home countries, but be ready to redeploy at short notice.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; writing by Andrew Quinn; editing by Jackie Frank and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deadline-looms-u-n-security-council-haggles-over-144603362.html

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