First UN observer team heads for Syria

An initial team of six observers, from the approved larger group of 30, are due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday.

On Saturday, all 15 members of the UN Security Council voted in favor of Resolution 2042, which authorized the deployment of the observers to monitor the ceasefire in Syria.

The observers will report to Annan and the UN headquarters in New York, and the Security Council can decide on the next steps in the mission.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the special envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, showed their approval of the resolution’s passage in a joint statement issued from Geneva.

The resolution calls on the Syrian government and the opposition to immediately “cease all armed violence in all its forms.”

Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s representative to the UN, said the new resolution is more balanced through extensive negotiations.

Churkin also blasted those Arab states like Qatar and Saudi Arabia that have set up funds for paying armed gangs fighting against the Syrian government.

He added that these countries created circumstances under which the fighting would never stop.

AGB/MA/HJL

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