UNITED NATIONS, April 14 (Itar-Tass) —— The United Nations Security Council is working on a draft resolution for sending an advance team of UN observers to Syria. The US-authored and Western countries-backed draft has drawn objections from Russia, China and a number of other SC member-states, which found it biased. On Friday Russia proposed its own, shorter wording of the resolution.
Russia’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, has told the media the security Council had achieved the understanding the resolution should concern the crux of the matter and be pragmatic and specific. The gist of the resolution is the deployment of an advanced observer mission in Syria, the Russian envoy recalled.
One can hardly say this about the Western draft, which is filled with ultimatums to the Syrian government and blames the Syrian authorities for the violence in the country. In the reworded draft the Western countries tried to take some of Moscow’s objections into account. There appeared a clause to the effect the Security Council demands from all factions in Syria, including the Opposition, to immediately end armed violence in all forms.
The Russian resolution envisages the deployment of an advanced group of 30 unarmed military observers, which would establish contact with the conflicting parties and start reporting compliance by all parties with the terms of the full termination of armed violence in all forms up to the deployment of the mission. The Russian draft contains a call addressed to the Syrian government and the other parties to ensure the advanced group should be able to perform its functions and to guarantee its security without harm to the freedom of movement and access. It recognizes that the Syrian government bears the main responsibility for that.
The diplomats believe that urgent arrival of UN observers in Syria will be of key importance to maintaining the ceasefire, which took effect on Thursday morning.