SYRIA: U.N. monitors leave their Damascus hotel to drive to Beirut now that the mandate for the observer mission in Syria has expired

Record ID: 281350

  • Title: SYRIA: U.N. monitors leave their Damascus hotel to drive to Beirut now that the mandate for the observer mission in Syria has expired
  • Date: 21st August 2012
  • Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (AUGUST 21, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF U.N. MONITORS AND THEIR LUGGAGE IN HOTEL LOBBY GROUP OF U.N. MONITORS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH VARIOUS OF MONITORS STANDING AND TALKING IN HOTEL LOBBY, SOME SHAKING HANDS AND EMBRACING EACH OTHER VARIOUS OF MONITORS WALKING WITH LUGGAGE AND ENTERING ELEVATOR VARIOUS OF MONITORS LOADING LUGGAGE INTO U.N. VEHICLES IN UNDERG
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAF5HPGOJ1D21DXBRIEVOY5G43Y
  • Story Text: U.N. observers who had been part of the monitoring mission in Syria left their hotel in the capital Damascus on Tuesday (August 21) to drive to the Lebanese capital Beirut by car.
    Most United Nations military observers have already left Damascus after a four-month mission in which they became helpless spectators of Syria's spiralling conflict, instead of monitoring a ceasefire between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels.
    U.N. cars were seen leaving the Dama Rose hotel in Damascus hotel at around noon on Tuesday, carrying some of the last remaining members of a mission which at its height deployed 300 observers across the country.
    The unarmed monitors suspended operations in June after coming under fire and most have already left the country, leaving a small 'liaison office' in Damascus in case a chance for a political settlement to the bloodshed ever emerges.
    The mandate of the monitoring mission, known as UNSMIS, expired on Sunday (August 19) night after diplomats at the United Nations said conditions for continuing operations had not been met. The last monitors are expected to be out of the country by Friday (August 24).
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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