SYRIA: Senior members of the United Nations working on the peace mission leave a Damascus hotel to meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem

Record ID: 280851

  • Title: SYRIA: Senior members of the United Nations working on the peace mission leave a Damascus hotel to meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem
  • Date: 21st May 2012
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (MAY 20, 2012) (REUTERS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) VARIOUS OF U.N. OBSERVERS AT THE HOTEL MILITARY ADVISER OF U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL BAN KI MOON, BABACAR GAYE, UNDER SECRETARY GENERAL FOR PEACEKEEPING HERVE LADSOUS AND UNITED NATIONS SUPERVISION MISSION IN SYRIA (UNSMIS) CHIEF ROBERT MOOD, GETTING OUT OF AN ELEVATOR AND ENTERING ANOTHER VARIOUS OF GAYE
  • Embargoed: 5th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAF2NSC41KA55YX0L3KGNPXWVCI
  • Story Text: Head of United Nations ceasefire monitors in Syria, Major General Robert Mood, Military Adviser of UN Secretary General Babacar Gaye and U.N. Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem in Damascus on Sunday (May 20).
    Ladsous said on Saturday (May 19) that the Syrian peace mission was making headway.
    He spoke as a car bomb in Deir al-Zor exploded, killing nine and wounding about 100, according to the official Syrian SANA news agency.
    There are 257 unarmed U.N. monitors in Syria to monitor a five-week-old truce brokered by Annan. That number is expected to increase to 300 by the end of May.
    The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than 800 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in violence since the ceasefire was declared on April 25.
    On Thursday Syria sent a letter to the United Nations saying members of al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood were using border areas of neighbouring Lebanon - where Syria has long influenced the security apparatus - to arm Syrian rebels.
    It pointed the finger at a Sunni Muslim political movement led by Saad al-Hariri, son of assassinated former minister Rafik al-Hariri, and at Lebanese Sunni Muslim Salafist groups.
    Members of Syria's main opposition grouping, the Syrian National Congress, have accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of orchestrating the bomb attacks in order to discredit them and flesh out his account of a foreign conspiracy.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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