UN approves last 30 days for UN observers in Syria

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday renewing the 300-strong U.N. observer force in Syria for 30 days, and allowed for a possible extension if the Syrian government stops using heavy weapons and violence is reduced.

The resolution is a lifeline for the unarmed observers who were sent to Syria three months ago to monitor a cease-fire that never happened, and to watch over the implementation of international envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, flouted by President Bashar Assad's government.

The council voted shortly after Russia's ambassador to France, Alexander Orlov, said he believed Assad was ready to step down "in a civilized way." The Syrian government immediately denied it, and the Russian Foreign Ministry said the ambassador's statements were taken out of context and "wrongly interpreted."

The mandate of the observer force had been set to expire Friday. The observers had suspended patrols in the face of escalating violence.

The force's future was in doubt following Russian and Chinese vetoes of a Western-backed U.N. resolution Thursday aimed at pressuring Assad's government to end the escalating civil war by threatening sanctions.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin had said he would veto the original British-drafted resolution on the observer mission and support a rival Pakistani text that would have extended the mission for 45 days, with the possibility of further renewals. But after closed-door consultations called by Pakistan, all 15 council members reached agreement on a revised British text.

The seemingly contradictory reports over Assad's intentions fueled the debate over his future, which already had intensified following this week's daring attack in Damascus that killed four people close to him. The victims included his powerful brother-in-law and deputy defense minister, and his defense minister.

Orlov, the Russian ambassador in Paris, said in an interview with Radio France Internationale that Assad's acceptance of an international agreement in June for a transition toward a more democratic regime, and his subsequent naming a representative to negotiate the transition, meant that he was prepared to give up leadership.

"Personally ... I think it will be difficult for him to stay in office, given everything that's happened," Orlov told RFI.

He later backtracked in an interview with BFM TV, saying in response to a question that he did not think Assad's days were numbered.

"I say it's for Syrian people to determine that ... Is the regime coming to an end or not? It's not for me to say," Orlov said.

The ambassador blamed the confusion on the fact that he was misunderstood.

"If President Assad accepted this (agreement) that foresees a transition, it means that perhaps within himself he is ready to leave if that was the result of the negotiations. It's because of this that I called it a civilized departure," he told BFM.

Orlov noted in the original RFI interview that Assad accepted the final statement of the June 30 Geneva agreement for a transition "toward a more democratic regime" and then went the next step, naming a representative to negotiate the transition with the opposition. In essence, that meant that "he accepted to leave, but leave in a civilized way," the ambassador said.

Syrian TV quickly said the interview had been taken out of context.

Russian Embassy spokesman Sergei Parinov said the ambassador's statement was "incorrectly interpreted" by international media. Parinov told The Associated Press the ambassador just "restated" Russia's interpretation of Assad's response to the Geneva agreement.

Parinov said the ambassador's statement was not referring to any new information coming from the Assad regime on Friday.

The remarks by the ambassador added a new layer of interpretation to the Geneva agreement, which was based on a U.N.-brokered peace plan that Syria's president was party to. In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined at the time that the plan does not require Assad's ouster, saying there is "no attempt in the document to impose on the Syrian people any type of transitional process."

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Ganley reported from Paris.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-approves-last-30-days-un-observers-syria-152709132.html

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