Kofi Annan said on Friday that UN monitors in Syria are keen
to resume their work, but circumstances must allow it. “The longer we wait, the
darker Syria’s future becomes, the time to act is now, process cannot be
open-ended”, he said.
Annan added that initiatives are undermining peace process, risk
unleashing “destructive competition".
“I have made it quite clear that Iran should be part
of the solution” he said.
Annan said that he approached Syrian government directly to
ask for trapped civilians to be released from Homs.
Chief of UN Syria monitoring force General Mood said
that monitors are continuing engagement by phone, some patrols still going to
hospitals, but not to new areas. “Far from
convinced that having more observers or arming observers would help the
situation on the ground”, Mood added.
Furthermore, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
said that he had urged Syria's government to "do a lot
more" to implement a U.N.-backed peace plan, but that foreign countries
must also press rebels to stop the violence.
After talks with Syria's foreign
minister, Lavrov told a Russian television station the Syrian government was
prepared to withdraw forces from cities and towns simultaneously with rebels
and suggested Moscow would seek support for such an agreement among other
nations.
In turn, the French foreign ministry called on the Syrian army to defect from the military institution.
Syrian state television reported that armed militants kidnapped and killed 25 people in Darat Azzah village in Aleppo province on Friday, as pro-opposition rights group said that at least 26
men, “believed to be pro-Assad Shabbiha militiamen were killed in Aleppo.
Earlier on Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said that the number of people needing
humanitarian assistance in Syria has risen to 1.5 million from the previous
estimate of 1 million.
In the field, at least 3 people including one woman and two security
officials were killed in Syria on Friday as regime forces intensified their
military operations in the Reef Deraa, shelling the city of Karak. According
to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Karak’s residents fled to other
regions to escape the violence.
In the town of Jasem, rebel fighters attacked checkpoints and
headquarters belonging to the regime forces. The Observatory reported that deaths and injuries resulted
from this attack, disclosing no further details.
REUTERS/LBCI