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FOR THE FIRST time since the Syrian conflict began more than a year ago, the UN Security Council last night united behind a legally binding resolution calling for violence to end immediately and peace talks to begin.
The resolution authorised the deployment of the first wave of UN military observers to monitor a fragile cease-fire between the Syrian government and opposition fighters.
It also called for “the urgent, comprehensive, and immediate implementation” of international envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan.
Russia and China vetoed two previous resolutions that would have condemned Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government for its bloody crackdown on protesters, calling them unbalanced because they demanded that the government stop attacks, but not the opposition. Russia, Syria’s most powerful ally, accused Western nations of seeking regime change.
The cease-fire, which formally took effect Thursday, is at the center of Annan’s peace plan, which is aimed at ending more than a year of bloodshed that has killed over 9,000 people, according to the United Nations, and to launch inclusive Syrian-led talks on the country’s political future.
But scattered violence continued on Saturday, sparking concern among council members.
“We hope that in the immediate term, this will open the way to a cessation of brutal violence, and we hope that we’ll be able to say to the Syrian people that the time of indiscriminate violence is finally behind it,” said France’s UN Ambassador Gerard Araud.
Still, Saturday’s attacks on the key city of Homs “lead to some doubts about the reality of the commitment of the Syrian regime,” Araud said.
US Ambassador Susan Rice called the government attacks in Homs a violation of the cease-fire.
The resolution calls on both sides to immediately “cease all armed violence in all its forms” and condemns “the widespread violations of human rights by the Syrian authorities, as well as any human rights abuses by armed groups.”
Annan told the council Thursday that Syria failed to keep a commitment to pull troops and heavy weapons out of cities and towns, and the resolution calls on Assad’s government to “visibly” implement this pledge.
The resolution calls for the deployment of an advance team of up to 30 unarmed military observers to initiate contacts with both sides and begin to report on whether there has been “a full cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties.”
The council said it intends to immediately establish a larger UN supervision mission after consultations between Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Syrian government.
Deployment of a larger force will be “subject to a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties.”
Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, has said that Annan — who is an envoy on behalf of the UN and the Arab League — envisions a mission with about 250 observers. Troops already in the region from Asian, African and South American countries acceptable to Assad’s regime could be used for the mission, he said.
Annan called for speedy deployment of UN monitors and Fawzi told a news conference in Geneva on Friday that an advance team of “around 10 or 12″ observers, that could quickly be increased to 30, was “standing by to board planes and to get themselves on the ground as soon as possible” once the Security Council approved their deployment.
The resolution calls on the Syrian government to ensure “full, unimpeded, and immediate freedom of movement and access” for the advance team and the larger mission that will follow, and allow the observers “freely and privately to communicate with individuals throughout Syria without retaliation against any person as a result of interaction with the mission.”
In the debate on the resolution adopted Saturday, Russia submitted a rival text to the US and Western-backed draft eliminating those assurances, and raised questions Friday evening about the final draft, which kept them. But Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters before Saturday’s vote that Moscow “was satisfied” and would vote “yes.”
Churkin told the council after the vote that the original resolution is “now more balanced.”
“Now we are at an extremely critical juncture,” he said, “All parties must stop” the violence.
“There have been too many casualties, too much suffering … with too many destructive consequences if it ratchets up,” not only for Syria but for the region, Churkin warned.
The original Western draft described the council as determined to consider “further measures” — which could include sanctions that Syria’s allies Russia and China have opposed — if Syria does not follow through on its commitments. This language was weakened in the final resolution to say the council would consider “further steps.”
The resolution was sponsored by the US, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Colombia and Morocco, the Arab representative on the 15-member council.
Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told reporters Friday that before any observers can be deployed, there would have to be a technical agreement on how the UN force will operate, Annan would have to make an independent report on the situation in Syria, and the Syrian government would have to approve the whole package.
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Why are most the comment sections closed on the journal now?
@: you know why
Lack of moderators would be my guess
1 way traffic
@Chris O’Brien:
because of people like u
@empty:
Libel laws
Because the journal loves censoring people
Ireland will be united one day whether the Brits are in or out. Their foreign policy is in tatters, their economy is being studied on how not to do it and their social order is not far from the crazies in the US. It’s up to us to unite Ireland as the Brits walked away years ago. However we have no talent in government to navigate a way. Martin, Leo, McEntee, etc are so bad, they make Liz Truss look like a genius.
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: We should look at our own problems and focus on those, instead of trying to make us feel better at some others issues.
@Joseph Fitzgibbon: A foreign government misgoverning part of our territory and many of our fellow citizens is a problem we should be dealing with. Lough Neagh is being poisoned, like much of Britain is, and the Tories don’t care. We need to ‘take back control’.
@A Well Known headline here yesterday was of a Dublin river being poisoned. I don’t think it’s exclusively a British problem.
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: as long as you have extremist’s party’s of DIP and SF in charge, unification will be a long way off.
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: NI is suppose to be self governing ! Louth Neagh is Stormont fault , but they won’t sit together . Brexit – protocol has been decent for NI but Unionists still say no. And you advocate for taking them , adding to our own problems ?
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: The paddies had 100 years to make the South attractive to the North
Poll after Poll show only a small minority of swivel eyed loons want a united ireland
They can keep the North we don’t want that basket case up there. No thanks.
@B6Tr3OgE: The Unionists can’t be forced into a united Ireland. UK will never accept that.
And from the Journal comments their presence in a united Ireland will not be accepted by Irish people.
Ain’t gonna happen soon.
@Gavan Hogan: major achievement of sf is to convince people that it is even an issue. It never comes up in everyday conversation except when they bring it into the picture. Let’s just get on with our own business.
It is sad to see Labour under Starmer.
He says whatever the pollsters suggest he should say to win.
The notion that he would be more principled as Prime Minister is fanciful.
@Nestor: Both UK and USA are becoming chaotic countries. That void is now being filled by others.
@Nestor: He’s not fit to tie the shoe laces of Jeremy Corbin.
@David: Jeremy didn’t have much use for shoelaces, more a sandals man.
He is in election mode but the truth is as always that the conditions for a border poll are set out in the GFA. Keir Starmer or anyone else can’t really stop it. If the conditions are there it will happen. If they aren’t it won’t. Everything else is just white noise.
Don’t think the English government should be able stop a border poll but ireland is getting more united since brexit and all right thinking business people know they will benefit from being in the EU the few loyalist hardliners will be left behind Jefffory d knows that .
Well finally some good news.
@: go away AI
Keir Starmer sucking up to the DUP in case he needs them to ensure a majority.
He doesn’t care one way or the other about Northern Ireland or Ireland as a whole, anymore than the Tories do.
And of course, the DUP are already busy writing their wishlist for the price of their votes, for whatever party eventually courts their support to form a UK government and probably while chanting that mantra of unionism….never, never, never, no,no,no, show me the money!
The north of Ireland and Scotland are colonies of the English. English people telling us that English people decide our future. The Irish Government must start preparing for a border poll. The further into the abyss that Britain sinks, the sooner a majority in the north will choose the relative sanity of unity.
@Jack Moss: Union Jack Moss. There is an English independence movement. I think they should leave. The issue is that England controls the Union. Scotland wants a referendum but is being denied it by English politicians. Starter has just said he will deny Irish people, too. If you want to mention 1707, I will mention 1918, when a majority in all of Ireland voted for independence.
@Jack Moss: Northern Ireland is NOT a nation!
and for the matter, neither is Scotland, nor England. The only one of the four that comes close is Wales.
watch the tories win again as the voters cant trust red commie starmer
and P.S. people say they dont like the tories over being too posh etc, but karmer LEGIT has “SIR” in his name!
@empty: no labour will win next GE..won’t really matter who wins .a border poll is not going happen no matter what Sinn fein say or Leo saying he hopes for a united ireland ..
@empty: labour lost the plot with policies to promote every woke agenda going.
People there having to vote Tory and hold their noses to keep some semblance or a normal life.
@Paul Hussey:
CALLED the silent majority
@Paul Hussey: they can’t even tell you what a woman is
@empty: it’s up to the UK to call a border poll ….they can’t even form a working government up north .can you really see them agree to a UI..not a chance .
@empty: Starmer is a red Tory.
@Paul Hussey: At some stage, there will be votes in Britain for the party that says it will save money by dumping the north of Ireland. That is when the border poll will be a formality.
@Paul Hussey: they already have!
That’s not for him to decide! The people of NI will decide and the people of Ireland will hopefully vote so we are a nation once again!
@PRdLQWQF: Any border poll must be authorised by the British PM. Problem for Starmer is he will never be PM.
corbyn was part of why they left EU
@empty: Corbyn took his party down the wrong path, most labour voters wanted to remain in the EU, but he selfishly chose to take a vague stance on leave/remain.
@MTB Mayo: well that’s not true. Corbin was staunchly for holding another referendum and that was his downfall
Starmer up
Let me tell you we will never stop, never stop
Never, never, never stop
Starmer shut up
You’ll make a grown man cry
Keir Starmer becoming PM isn’t even on the horizon.
“Sir” Kerr is no Tony Blair
No Northern Irish reading the comments would consider a UI. Was only ever united under British rule.
Before that it was an anarchic island of warring provinces, viking and Danish invaders etc. The Normans began the process of turning Ireland into a country.
@offside again: Troll. What does it matter if it was never united before? In 1918, the vast majority voted against the union, for independence parties. That didn’t matter to the British, they partitioned the island with no mandate.
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: Me troll ?? I think you need to understand that Irish history is older than our relationship with the British Empire. You’re stuck in a moment and you can’t get out of it. Ireland is still a work in progress. It has evolved hugely in my own lifetime.
@offside again: It seems you are stuck in moments of irrelevant history. The Danish were in many countries, it doesn’t matter in 2023. The “moment’” is now. The British govern part of our island. I expect to keep evolving, so that Starmer is an observer, not a player, in our affairs.
He is a kknob.
have your say