UN Security Council: 300 Observers for Syria Ceasefire
Deal Includes Additional Civilian Specialists as Well
The United Nations Security Council has voted today to turn the ceasefire observers in Syria into a full mission, under the name UN Supervision Mission in Syria, with plans to send 300 unarmed military observers and a team of civilian specialists to join the “advance” group already on the ground.
The agreement capped a week of arguments over competing resolutions offered by the US and Russia. The American version included multiple condemnations of the Syrian government and threats of new sanctions if the entire Syrian military didn’t withdraw unilaterally to their barracks. The Russian version simply authorized the observers. In the end, the Russian version won out, but with a compromise that added “profound regret” for the past deaths of Syrian civilians to the text.
Next on the agenda for the UN mission will be negotiating with the Assad regime on the use of helicopters for the observers. The UN and Syria reached a deal on Thursday to allow the expansion of the mission.
The ceasefire, which began a week ago Thursday, has not been entirely successful, but the level of violence in the nation has dropped dramatically since its implementation. Both sides continue to accuse one another of violations, however, and the US and France have both hinted at using the “violation” as an excuse for a military invasion. The new observer resolution, one hopes, will quiet the calls for war at least for a while.
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Nathan
April 21st, 2012 at 11:29 am
This is terribly dangerous for Syria and it should not have accepted it. In the Pandora’s Box of 300 there may lie some hidden tricks, especially if all or a major part of the observers are from NATO countries.
What if 10% of them are military experts and spies who are intended to actually help the NATO terrorists there. Each observer members should then be closely watched by Syrian security forces.
What if 50% of the observers are actually US Special Forces and CIA agents? And what if after a couple of days the team indicates unwillingness to continue and wants to return and upon leaving switches that 50% with the run of the mill terrorists? Now Assad has to deal with 150 military experts leading various terrorist groups all over Syria.
Looks like both Russia and China have been outsmarted again!
MoT
April 21st, 2012 at 5:41 pm
You can count on there being a significant number of spies, forward observers, and agent provocateurs who are simply there to cause mischief and map out a future attack.