MOSCOW, April 14 (Itar-Tass) —— Moscow is waiting for the U.N. Secretary-General to make concrete proposals on how to launch a large-scale observer mission in Syria, the Foreign Ministry said.
The U.N. Security Council has practically agreed a draft resolution on the deployment of the first group of the U.N. monitoring mission in Syria, which will watch the ceasefire in that country, the ministry said on Saturday, April 14.
According to the statement made by the Security Council chairman on April5, its parameters have to be coordinated by the U.N. Secretary-General with the Syrian government.
Moscow regrets that “the U.N. Secretariat has for a long time failed to complete the consultations on this issue with the Syrian authorities. Negotiations with the government of Syria were suspended by the U.N. at the time when signs of progress had appeared. Norwegian General Robert Mood, who led the U.N. team, was called back ‘for consultations’ and never returned to Damascus despite numerous appeals from Syria.”
The ministry believes that it is hard to explain this situation but it is clear that “all this does not help international and regional efforts to implement the Kofi Anna plan aimed at achieving a peaceful settlement in Syria as soon as possible”.
Russia calls for “resuming the talks between the U.N. and the Syrian authorities immediate and sending a technical group to Syria in order to complete this process”.
“In fact, this issue become urgent. We also expect the U.N. Secretary-General to provide the Security Council with concrete proposals on how to launch a large-scale U.N. monitoring mission after consultations with the government of Syria,” the ministry said.
“Another matter of our concern is sceptical statements in some capitals that Kofi Annan’s mission and diplomatic efforts to stabilise the situation in Syria and foster a political process there are doomed to fail. Such statements are not conducive to the implementation of the special envoy’s plan and interested countries’ efforts to launch an inter-Syrian inclusive political dialogue,” the ministry said.
Moreover, “they spur the opposition to continue the armed struggle that kills people and damages Syrian infrastructure”, it added.
“Just yesterday, terrorists shot a Syrian army officer in Hama, blow up a bomb and attacked a military patrol with dynamite sticks. Similar incidents with attacks by some opposition groups were registered in other Syrian cities as well,” the ministry said.
Moscow urges “all Syrian parties, including the armed opposition, to stop violence immediately, strictly comply with the Kofi Annan plan and start broad-based negotiations. Russia is ready to continue making an active contribution to the resolution of this task,” the ministry said.