The head of the UN ceasefire mission in Syria General Robert Mood said on Friday that no number of observers could halt the ‘violence’ in the country unless there is a genuine commitment from all sides for ‘peace’

The head of the UN ceasefire mission in Syria General Robert Mood said on Friday that no number of observers could halt the ‘violence’ in the country unless there is a genuine commitment from all sides for ‘peace’.

"No volume of observers can achieve a progressive drop and a permanent end to the violence if the commitment to give dialogue a chance is not genuine from all internal and external factors," Mood told reporters.

"We are very committed to the Syrian people, innocent women and children, to return back to normality," he added. "But we must be given a real chance to do that from the fighting parties and their supporters."

Mood said the presence of UN monitors since a tenuous April truce went into effect has had an "immediate calming effect" but acknowledged a surge in violence in recent days. He said of some 300 observers due to be deployed in the country as part of the UN-backed ceasefire agreement, nearly 260 had arrived from approximately 60 UN member states.

"This is not a powerful tool in military terms because we are unarmed but it is a very powerful tool in [the sense] that it is the international community coming together on the ground because the Syrian people deserve a reduction of violence," he said.

Mood said he was not surprised about skepticism over the UN mission and even found it "logical," but insisted that the truce was "the only game in town," at least for now."If it is anything that the Syrian people do not deserve, it is another alternative that would lead to more violence," he said. "So I have yet to be convinced ... by anybody that they have a good alternative."

Mood’s comments came after news circulated about UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s plan to visit the Syrian Capital in the near future to observe the ongoing UN-backed ceasefire in the Middle Eastern country.

"The envoy (Annan) is considering an invitation to visit Syria. ... We can expect the visit soon," Ahmed Fawzi, the spokesman for Annan, said on Friday without specifying a date for the visit.