Syria ceasefire entered on Tuesday its sixth day, with international community as well as world powers were declaring positions over the situation in the country.
Syria ceasefire entered on Tuesday its sixth day, with international community as well as world powers were declaring positions over the situation in the country.
The military observers of the United Nations acknowledged they were facing a “difficult” job firming up the ceasefire.
Colonel Ahmed Himmiche, a Moroccan officer who heads a six-strong advance team preparing for the deployment of a 30-strong mission, said the observers would move forward one step at a time.
"It's a difficult mission that needs coordination and planning", Himmiche said.
"No ceasefire, not even the beginnings of a political process -- this mission will be one of the toughest ever undertaken by the United Nations", the head of the observer advance team added.
The advance team of the observers arrived late on Sunday in Syria, after the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution authorizing them to contact all the Syrian sides and ensure that they commit to the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who brokered the six-point peace plan, was to travel to Qatar for a ministerial meeting of the Arab League on the crisis later on Tuesday, his spokesman said.
RUSSIA: CEASEFIRE “FRAGILE”
On the other hand, Russia called the ceasefire in Syria "fragile", urging countries to put more pressure on the armed groups in order to cooperate with Annan's peace plan.
"The ceasefire really is relatively fragile", Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow in televised remarks.
"There really are those who are interested in the failure of Kofi Annan's plan and they actually mentioned that (opinion) even before this plan was made public", Lavrov said without naming specific countries.
"There are countries -- there are outside forces -- that are not interested in the success of current UN Security Council efforts", Lavrov said.
US: ‘HONOR’ ANNAN PLAN
For its part, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was still "hoping for the best" but was discussing with other powers what to do in the event the peace plan collapses.
She called on the Syrian regime to ‘honor’ Annan's plan in full, not just the promised ceasefire.
"What the Assad regime needs to do is to make clear that they're going to silence their guns, withdraw their troops and work toward fulfilling the six-point plan", she said.
Complying with the Annan plan also means allowing ‘peaceful’ demonstrations, releasing political prisoners and allowing a ‘peaceful political transition to begin’, Clinton added.
