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Reuters handout
Moroccan Colonel Ahmet Himmiche, third from left, is leading the first U.N. monitoring team in Syria.
Updated 11:48 a.m. ET: The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Saturday morning to deploy 300 unarmed military observers to Syria for three months to monitor a fragile, week-old ceasefire in a 13-month old conflict.
The council's resolution noted that the cessation of violence by the government and opposition is "clearly incomplete."
The resolution was approved within hours of the arrival of the first ceasefire monitors in the battered Syrian city of Homs and just a day after opposition activists said shelling and gunfire had stopped for the first time in weeks.
But activists in Homs said that the shelling paused only to make it look as if the government was abiding by a truce, mediated by international Peace Envoy Kofi Annan. They said shelling would resume as soon as the monitors left.
"It is very clear that the Syrian government can stop the violence whenever it wants at anytime in the country," Walid al-Fares, an opposition activist living in Homs told Reuters.
Today: Diplomats' wives plea to Asma Assad -- "Stop your husband"
On Friday, 10 people were killed in Syria's third largest city and epicenter of a year-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, after heavy bombardment from government forces.
Syrian authorities say they are fighting "armed terrorist" groups and that they are still allowed to respond to acts of aggression to maintain security despite having agreed to a ceasefire.
Amateur video posted online on Friday appeared to show heavy shelling and explosions in residential neighborhoods of Homs.
Meantime, on Saturday near the Syrian capital of Damascus, a "massive explosion" was heard near a military airport.
"I heard a massive explosion and some smoke rising," said a resident, who lives in the Mezze district of the city near the airport. He said he was not sure what had caused the explosion.
The pro-government Ikhbariya television channel said there was no gunfire in the area, denying a report by Arabic-language satellite channel al-Jazeera, but did not confirm or deny that an explosion had taken place.
The advance team of eight U.N. observers had been denied permission by the Syrian authorities to go to Homs last week - purportedly for security reasons.
On Thursday, Syria and the United Nations signed an agreement setting out the working conditions of ceasefire observers. The agreement stipulates "unfettered access" and freedom for monitors to travel and contact people.
Top U.N. humanitarian official John Ging said on Friday he hoped Syria would also grant permission in the coming days to send more aid workers to the country, where at least 1 million people are in need of urgent assistance.
He told reporters in Geneva that Syria had recognized there were "serious humanitarian needs" and that action was required, but logistical issues and visas for aid workers are still being discussed.
After a month-long shelling campaign in the central Homs district of Baba Amr, the Syrian government prevented the International Committee for the Red Cross from entering the area for several days. Opposition activists living in Homs said the government wanted to remove evidence of war crimes.
The United Nations estimates Assad's forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the uprising. Syria says foreign-backed militants have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and police.
The U.N. Security Council is due to vote on a draft resolution on Saturday to authorize the deployment to Syria of up to 300 unarmed military observers.
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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Let's hope it works.
Peace in Syria!
Actually, this is just one step in the downward spiral, that has become the Syrian Civil War.
Care4, and here I thought you birthers had gone away. Thanks for the laughs.
Get the UN the hell out of Syria. Stop the bullying and world police BS. It won't be long before they're in the US rolling around with guns telling us what we can and cannot do.
UN trumps NOTHING! Sovereign law and morality should always the bloody UN. They're murderers and GOONS!
Do you have any real proof of his attorneys saying it was a fake?
care4, if you're not a birther, why did you bring it up?
The UN can send 300,000 there, not going to help much.
The people want the existing government out, whats to monitor on that?
What a waste of our money, the UNs' every action is anti-American, while we foot the bill. These middle east people are not like us, they love killing, they ignore basic human needs in order to pray all day to a god that is vindictive and immoral. As long as folks swear to Islam, they cannot truthfully ever peacefully co-exist with other religions, if they do they are denying the commandments of the Koran! Leave these animals alone let them kill each other so they don't have time to kill Americans!
just because Cuba was over thrown with a 72 man coup, does Not mean 300 observers will make a difference there ..spreading it thin in today's realm, only means; Long, Long Lingering......
How do we keep UN observers safe? Here is the issue. The Syrian people are unarmed because the government wants it that way so they have all the fire power. This is what happens to a country as we have also seen in Egypt and Libya where the government takes away guns only to later use that power on the people. The US is heading in that same direction with all this talk of limiting gun permits.
I don't personally own a gun. I am not fond of guns a lesson I learned early in life when a husband shot the woman that cared for me growing up. I don't understand the need for automatic weapons for civilians, but I now see what limiting guns does to a society when they want to rise up. Maybe that is the point. Limit the guns so civilians can't fight back.
forget peace & forget you
Can you cite examples? Other than the scare old white men, right-wing AM talk radio, I can't figure out where this nonsense is coming from.
..300 Mossad, Blackwater/CIA, MI5..implants...think its screwed now? Give it a few weeks..
300 'unarmed advisors' to a country with 25million people and the size of Missouri? An exercise in futility!
Hello folks, when will we discard our Imperialistic mindset? This is just another ploy by the U.S. and the U.N. to perpetrate the war mongering and demonizing as the U.S. is trying to drum up more support for another war. We’ve caused enough trouble around the world. If you can't see that we are the instigators in most of the world's wars and displacement of millions of people who are fleeing our aggression, than you are not paying attention. If you don’t think we have been in Syria covertly arming the rebels you are in denial and forgetting about Libya. We need to stay out of other country’s civil disputes. I hope we aren’t going to go against the United Nations vote earlier this year and unilaterally go into Syria under the pretext that we need to stop the violence like we did in Libya. General Wesley Clark has stated that a Syria invasion has been pre-planned for quite awhile.
General Wesley Clark: "America will take out 7 countries in 5 years"
According to Former NATO supreme allied commander, former presidential candidate and 4 star US General Wesley Clark that they had received a memo that America is going to take out 7 countries in the Middle East starting with Iraq, Libya, Syria Lebanon Sudan, Somalia, and finally Iran. It is amazing how these things that were planned years ago are being achieved in front of our eyes.
Why is it other countries feel like they have to defend their territory? Could it be that they know we have no problem invading their sovereignty just as we have done to countless other countries. Since World War II, 90% of the casualties of war are unarmed civilians. 1/3 of them children. Our victims have done nothing to us. From Palestine to Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia to wherever our next target may be, their murders are not collateral damage, they are the nature of modern warfare. They don't hate us because of our freedoms. They hate us because every day we are funding and committing crimes against humanity. The so-called "war on terror" is a cover for our military aggression to gain control of the resources of western Asia.
This is sending the poor of this country to kill the poor of those Muslim countries. This is trading blood for oil. This is genocide, and to most of the world, we are the terrorists. In these times, remaining silent on our responsibility to the world and its future is criminal. And in light of our complicity in the supreme crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing violations of the U.N. Charter in International Law, how dare any American criticize the actions of legitimate resistance to illegal occupation.
We are going into Syria for a couple of reasons (yes we are in Syria with our Drones at a minimum), one, we are trying to dislodge Russia from there because they have a foothold in the Middle East via two military bases in Latakia and Tartus in Syria. Two, Syria is a strong ally of Iran. If we invade Syria we take out a strong ally and maybe incite Iran to assist giving the U.S. the reason they are looking for to attack Iran. The ultimate goal is to surround, weaken and to invade Iran. The petro dollar is at stake as other countries are switching to other forms of currency in buying Iran’s oil.
Since the Russian war in 1828, Iran has never attacked another country. We on the other hand have attacked to name a few:
Libya, Iran, Nicaragua, Haiti, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Angola, Mozambique, Honduras, Chile, Congo, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Angola, Columbia, Peru, Panama, Yemen, Pakistan, Grenada, Mexico, etc..
Wake up people we are being herded down the Military Industrial Complex gauntlet again to another false war to enrich the greedy Corporations and distract the American people. Did we not learn anything from the Iraq war where we have killed well over 1 million Iraqi people, lost thousands of American lives and God knows how many hundreds of billions of dollars?
Who do you support, humanity or the greedy elite?
Many of our soldiers don't fight for America, they fight for their lives and their buddies beside them, because we put them in a war zone. They're not defending our freedoms, they're laying the foundation for permanent military bases to defend the freedoms of Exxon Mobil and British Petroleum.
Face it we're Imperialists pure and simple. The elite look down on all of us as expendable chattel.
"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy" Henry Kissinger
I’m not asking you to hate war, but to love peace? War, what is it good for, absolutely nothing!
Since I am not there, I have no idea what is going on. I might add, I am not going and I do not want our government sending our money.
Seems like the UN has made this exact mistake several times before. In Kosovo, Bosnia, Uganda, & Rwanda among others. As Reagan did in Lebanon. When you put men and women in danger they need the ability to defend themselves and civilians.
just go and blow the hell out of him allredy . you all know its comming just get it dune ans stop puting it off
Devil's Son, you are right. I give the three hundred UNARMED military about a month at best. Where does the UN get people to go to a gunfight with no gun? I hope no American soldier is stupid enough to volunteer for that.
China is part of the UN, send 300 Chinese UN observers there, Be hard for them to agree what either side is saying then. Most other countries can't understand them either!
when we pull troops out of Afghanistan, let's send them thru Syria to take the current govt down.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Well, at least it would be easier than finding them jobs. Oh hell, we may be giving the government ideas.
Just who are they going to get to volunteer to go in there without weapons?
The government sent a couple hundred of these type people into Vietnam--gee look how that turned out. We kill more people that we help--Vietnam-Iraq and Afghanistan. If we help the masses be free of this dick great---let's try the "walk softly and carry a big stick approach" and without spending presious tax revenues. I know the Military Industrialists want their chunk of cash-but let's not be urinating away money on wars when we are slicing education.
300 more Monitoring Teams sent to Syria.
The Teams must be aware they are prime targets for Assad's Team to rid them.
The War is Syria will last thousands more years---The Slaughter will go on. It's in the KORAN.
The UN sending them is just another "Symbol" that nothing will be accomplished, but a show that the UN is on top of this War, they being a very Powerful World Organization.. NOT..
Assad must be gone in a final way---that is how it will stop, or the next leader, even a relative will continue the Syrian Slaughter. It is Nepotism at best, with Dictators like this. Someone always waiting in the "wings", with the same Agenda.
care4mycountry,mychildren,myparents, don't comment spam, especially off-topic stuff. Several comments deleted, you're suspended for a week for violating #4 and #5 of the Code of Honor.
Oh good, lets hand them 300 hostages.
Wow, 300 unarmed military is really going to help a lot. That would be like sending 300 National Guard troops to our borders unarmed.
The U.N. is only GOOD at molesting other countries bank accounts to support their World Wide redistribution of wealth through the IMF.
@Kat Girl---------What an excellent observation, at least you face facts instead of falling for the lies of the "global control hopees"!
Will this do anything to change the countries love or hate for Assad .... ??
After he's brutally killed thousands already ....
NOPE ....
I hope none of these 300 UN observers are going to be American. In 1988 there was a USMC Col Higgins, who was with the UN observer contingent in Lebanon, he was captured, taken hostage, tortured, and killed by Hezbollah. A year and a half after being captured, images his body hanging by the neck were released by his captures. We need to stay out of these conflicts in the middle east. These Muslims hate us, no matter which side they are on in their internal conflicts. I do not care what happens to these scum, the more they kill each other, the better I sleep at night.
Hey, Terry ----- Well stated. What the U.S. needs to do is PUBLICLY DEMAND that the ARAB LEAGUE take a positive posture, go into Syria and observe exactly what is going on, who is firing upon whom and then, if the case warrants, supply the Syrian civilians with weapons, medical supplies, foodstuffs and, if need be, supplement the ranks of civilian fighters with NEIGHBORING MUSLIM VOLUNTEERS to augment the civilian Syrians. Whatever the situation, this conflict MUST REMAIN a local one. No outsiders, including U.N. "observers" must become involved, PERIOD !
300 hundred unarmed servants of the UN? yikes. I believe if you wear the uniform of a soldier.... bearing arms if the first commandment regardless of the situation. Oh well, good luck... God bless each of you.
As long as there are NO American troops, who cares!
Tired...I didnt see the statement that none were from the U.S., did you? And, what will be your reaction if some are killed...Tortured... or held hostage for a year???
Tired- So you don't care if some Canadian or Swiss observer gets killed? I'm also pretty sure that there will be some American observers.
@ Random---How naive, your insinuation that every life is the same is stupid, if foreigners wish to commit suicide by trying to help stop these animals from killing each other, that's there problem! American nationalism is what built us into the most powerful nation on earth, not unending service to the rest of the "dysfunctional world"! These people are consumed with religion and killing, killing, and more killing, we cannot and should not be wasting American blood or treasure on a lost cause!
Legal, Did I ever say that every life is the same? Did I ever say that we should be sending American observers over to Syria? No and NO! I think it's a terrible that the UN is sending observers from many countries over to Syria.
I stand by my earlier statement! We have wasted enough lives through the years being the World's policemen. Enough, let others bear that burden going forward.
Oh goody! And yet another asinine, pointless quagmire we'll be drawn into.
And how many of these 300 "UN" unarmed "servants" and "military observers" are U.S. troops????? Let me guess: 299??????????
Of course Assad wants UN Troops to come in. He needs help sweeping up the body parts of the protesters.
Maybe now the world can find out who the protesters really are. Are they the liberal Facebook generation, or the Islamist, AQ, Hezbollah terrorists?
I think Assad will leave Syria and open up an Ophthalmology practice in Tehran.
Great. 300 blue hats standing by uselessly while the Syrian regime continues to murder people who don't worship Assad. The reason this slaughter continues is because he knows he can. Just like in N. Korea and Iran, the civilized world continues to draw line after line in the sand while the politicians and diplomats issue forth with a lot of pious harumphing that really means nothing.
Agree. Whether they send 30 or 300 the number is too small to do the job. In Bosnia they had roughly 8 times the (300) number for a area approximately one tenth the size. China and Russia at the UN will make sure the number stays so low that it will continue to be ineffective. Meanwhile Assad will continue to announce that he is working with the UN while tightening his grip. The UN is doing what it does best...give legitimacy to dictators, terrorists, tyrants and foes of America and the West.
Someone needs to slap the Handcuffs in Bashar and Asma: While they are at it, Cuff Anna Wintour of Vogue as well. I hope the 300 observers come to no harm. I would not want to enter the place "Naked" as they are doing.... It is asking a lot to ask a soldier to be a soldier without a weapon.
Assad could be dead in fifteen minutes if need be. Any number of countries, or the UN could accomplish that deed. There is no real desire to oust him by the corrupt UN, because Syria is just a fundraising for the Kofi Annan's of the UN , a totally useless organization.
Drug use among troops did not start in Afghanistan - it only continues there. There is a long history of drug abuse in the military.
You are absolutely correct in your statement, but you might want to check the article. This is about the observers going to Syria.... You are about 1,700 miles of the mark. Cheers, anyway:)
care3, "The Taliban used to suppress the heroin drug market."
Completely wrong.
Care4:
By continually harping about Obama's birth Cert, you are actually helping his re-election effort. Fact is, a lot of us would have a hard time providing our birth certs, and proving their authenticity.
Care4
I am not an Obama fan, but what does this have to do with the story? Stay on topic. It creates credibility.
Lets send Obama in to Apologize to both sides and then he can offer to subsidize their recovery and show them how to energize their economy like he has done to ours
Let's Leave Obama out of this. The Syrian People have suffered enough.
We have to and we can donate him to the Syrian Peoples movement
It's a start anyhow. With a little luck some of them will be killed and we have a good excuse to send in the troops, or at least start bombing.
How do you know its Assad who is breaking the cease-fire? It's the rebels who want a complete collapse of the government.
"How do you know its Assad who is breaking the cease-fire? It's the rebels who want a complete collapse of the government."
Ah, that's what these guys are going there for.
No, these guys are in here to start a break of the cease-fire so that they can have an excuse for the US to come in with NATO troops and topple Assad.
PROFITEERING. The UN is a band of PIRATES.
Will we ever learn? Probably not...
My Realist site MUST agree with you....
My Idealist side Disagrees with you....
My hope is the Syrian people get freedom and democracy. It is amazing how nice people can get if they are free and are treated with some sort of dignity. A little bit of freedom goes a long, long, way.
This broad take-over of every Arab Nation has got to stop. This is purely 100% idiotic and all leads to profiteering by the Western World.
SHAME ON THE UN. Our nation needs to pull out of the United Nitwits.
I guess you don't know who the members of the UN are. These guys are being sent in to observe not take over.
The UN sent them in empty handed.? Did the UN also give them a copy of their Death Warrant.?
Great as long as long as the U.S. spends about a buck O 5 on the deal.
The UN is primarily paid for by the US, you know.
You can judge how accurate the reporting is about Syria (on the "bad" list for U.S. and it's ally, Israel) and that of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
Here's some recent happenings in Bahrain that you won't hear about from the government or the hacks in the corporate media:
Mass protests in Bahrain in advance of Grand Prix auto race
By David Walsh
21 April 2012
In advance of Sunday’s Grand Prix auto race, tens of thousands of protesters took to a major highway in Bahrain Friday to demand democratic rights and called for the downfall of the country’s autocratic regime.
In the face of harsh security measures taken by the regime of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, demonstrators chanted, “The people want to topple the regime” and “Down Hamad,” referring to the hated monarch.
The February 14 Youth Movement had called on social networking sites for “three days of rage” to coincide with the auto race.
On Friday thousands of protesters walked along the roadway from Budaiya, to the west of Manama, the capital. The authorities had banned protests in Manama, the site of the Formula One race. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KILfW2beMmk)
When a portion of the crowd headed for Pearl Square, the roundabout that was the center of last year’s protests, police attacked them with teargas and stun grenades. Witnesses also told the media that the security forces fired buckshot to disperse the protesters, wounding dozens.
An activist, Sayed Yousif al-Muhafda, told Reuters by telephone, “They are trying to go to Pearl Square, police are firing teargas and sound bombs. I can see hundreds, they are still fighting.” Another told the wire service, “There was teargas everywhere … A couple of hundred people took refuge in the mall … kids, grown-ups, women…
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/bahr-a21.shtml
It was just on msnbc.msn.com Try reading the news.
Hmmm, what do you call someone who posts primarily to drag in Israel?
...an anti semite.
And if they don't know the possessive of "it" is "its" and not "it's"?
...an ignorant anti semite.
Well now we have our foot in the door...
300 more unarmed observers? Tits on a tomcat.
Again, the UN is proved to be an ineffective waste of time and money. They've really done nothing to solve violence anywhere.
Rachel....You have to give the UN credit for organizing the third world countries and giving them a platform to attack our country....while using our money to accomplish this...
Rachel: It was just on msnbc.msn.com Try reading the news. (Bahrain protests)
I read MSNBC all the time. It had to be a pretty short item and not on the "front page" very long if it was there.
I've also watch CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc. and haven't seen anything about the protests in Bahrain.
On the other hand not only MSNBC but all the corporate media outlets are obsessed with Syria and Iran.
Day in and day out you see articles about those countries, and, concerning Syria all from the point of view of the "rebels" (who are mostly conservative islamic groups) and usually only having the rebel PR assets as sourcing.
Here's an article from a different viewpoint than the mainstream media:
Paris “Friends of Syria” meeting: Imperialist powers prepare for war against Syria
By Johannes Stern
21 April 2012
The so-called “Friends of Syria,” consisting of the major imperialist powers, their NATO allies, and the Gulf monarchies, met Thursday evening in Paris to step up their war preparations against Syria.
At the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared, “I think we have to do more to take tougher actions against the Assad regime.” She called for a “Chapter 7 sanctions resolution” in the United Nations Security Council, referring to the charter provision that allows for military intervention against another country. She urged travel and financial sanctions as well as an arms embargo “and the pressure that will give us on the regime to push for compliance with Kofi Annan’s six-point plan.”
Clinton’s invocation of the Annan peace plan was utterly cynical. From day one, the US has used the ceasefire agreement brokered by Annan as a trap for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. While feigning support for “peace.” Washington has continued to insist that the goal of the process is Assad’s removal from office and has tacitly supported ongoing bombings and other attacks by the Western-funded and armed Syrian opposition against Syrian government security forces. The idea from the beginning was to provoke the regime into retaliating against opposition forces and then use Assad’s violations of the ceasefire as the pretext for intensified military intervention…
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/syri-a21.shtml
It has been on the front page of the world news section for a couple days now (including today). I'm going to guess that just happens to be the one page you don't look at.
300 UN (US) observers are not observers, they are intellligent gathering arm that will be used to arm and supply weapons to the opposition to assassinate Assad, mission occomplished. Another dead leader of a Arab country at the request of Israel. The government of Syria is really no difference than that of the US. The US has a leadership that in all purposes is autocratic where the wishes of 500,000 citizens are forced down the throat of the other 350 million citizens, from my point of view this is autocratic. When the electorate are in office they do as they want they are not responsible to the citizens of each state. When a person in the senate is elected for 6 years that is like a life time. Congressional members need to be limited to two years only, then they are out of politics forever at any level. We need to out law lobbyist that also includes lobbyist of the supreme court. Influence peddling should not be tolerated at any level. The supreme court has made victims of the citizens of the US with their decisions made along republican party lines and for indirect finanical gains.
Which 500,000 people are those?
Oh, you're so right. The Jews (as per your thinly veiled post) are just dying for more Islamist governments. Just dying...
Oh, those naughty Zionist conspirators ... yeah, right. Getting rid of the pro-Western dictators is a bowel movement of Islam and probably backed by the Saudis. Why would Jews want even more countries run by Islamic crazy people?
When will some UN observers be sent into Palestine, to stop the killing of civilians, and the land stealing by the Jews ???
Right the extermination of the burgeoning Arab population in the Holy Land. As we saw on 911, there are far too many of them.
How well has outside intervention worked in Libya, Egypt, Tunisa, Irag. Not very well, but it did feel good to see Saddam Hussein on the end of a rope or Moamar Gaddafi beaten to death. Yes, those were just two feel good moments. So, it will probably feel just as good to see the Dictator in Syria come to his own bad ending.
This is a joke- just roll tanks in there and shut them down
No wonder Syria is so out of step with the rest of the world! they don't have monitors for their computers! Thanks to the UN they will now have 300 monitors so they will have usable computers. That should change the dynamics of the Entire Middle East!
@!$%# you
The UN reminds me of the time nothing happened. They're nothing but a bunch of anti-Western Civilization, pro-Islamist hacks. But, I just love their little baby blue uniforms.
I have never understood the willingness of un soldiers to go into a war zone unarmed. Going in unarmed greatly increases their chances of becoming hostages or having even worse be done to them. I would NEVER go into a war zone unarmed.
The UN is a big fat joke , they are puppets to NATO and the Rich oil states , money talks and governments falls , that's what's been going on for years, Syria is a sovereign country and the Assad regime bad or good have the right to defends its civilians , if NATO like it or not , Syria should tell the UN to go to hell and keep their ass's pot of there , because these monitors are nothing but spies , just like they did in Iraq , remember what Scott Ritter said that time ,