SYRIA: U.N. truce mission work remains suspended

Record ID: 280949

  • Title: SYRIA: U.N. truce mission work remains suspended
  • Date: 26th June 2012
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (JUNE 25, 2012) (REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS CEASEFIRE MONITORING MISSION CHIEF ROBERT MOOD, ENTERING HOTEL (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROBERT MOOD, CHIEF OF THE UNITED NATIONS CEASEFIRE MONITORING MISSION, SAYING: "We haven't made that decision yet. But I was able today to have a meeting, a good meeting, a professional meeting with the deputy minister of foreign
  • Embargoed: 11th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVA93U9VDYSEGZ5Z1FOES6AQ0Q0U
  • Story Text: Chief of the United Nations ceasefire monitors in Syria, Robert Mood, said on Monday (June 25) the mission has not made a decision to re-activate patrols in the country, after being suspended for nine days.
    But he said he had a constructive and transparent meeting with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad.
    "We haven't made that decision yet. But I was able today to have a meeting, a good meeting, a professional meeting with the deputy minister of foreign affairs and the working groups. I conveyed my impressions from New York and Geneva after having briefed the Security Council and after having discussed with Kofi Annan," he said.
    Mood added that discussion of options for the future was underway.
    "I conveyed that we are now in the phase when we are discussing options for the future and we had a very professional exchange on that and then we'll see in the coming days what will happen next," he said.
    The U.N. mission has suspended its patrols because fighting between government forces and opponents of President Bashar al-Assad have posed a threat to Mood's team of unarmed observers and prevented them from carrying out their mandate to oversee international mediator Kofi Annan's widely ignored April 12 ceasefire plan for Syria.
    Mood blamed both Syrian government troops and rebels for the relentless conflict, in which Assad's forces are trying to crush an increasingly well-armed insurgency which grew out of a 15-month-old wave of protests.
    Annan said in Geneva, Switzerland on June 22 that he wanted states with influence on both sides of the conflict to be involved in the peace process, including Iran, Assad's closest ally.
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