UN says Syrian regime refusing observers by nationality

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said on Tuesday that Syrian regime has refused at least one U.N. military observer because of his nationality and has made clear it will not allow in U.N. staff from any country in the “Friends of Syria” group.

Susan Rice spoke to the the press after hearing a report by United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Herve Ladsous. Speaking to the UN Security Council, he stressed that the position of the Syrian regime was "totally unacceptable."

The "Friends of Syria" gathers primarily Western countries, like France, Britain and the United States as well as Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Turkey, who all called to the departure of Bashar al Assad.

In the latest violence Wednesday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 11 people have been killed by the gunfire of Syrian regime forces.

Meanwhile, the international mediator Kofi Annan, pleaded Tuesday for the "fast" deployment of the 300 international observers to monitor the cease-fire in Syria. "The rapid deployment of the Mission of UN supervision in Syria (MISNUS) is crucial," Annan told the Security Council. "We need to have eyes and ears on the ground, able to move freely and quickly," he said.

But he said he was "particularly concerned" by the entry of government troops into Hama, which saw "a significant number of victims." According to him, the situation in Syria continued to be "unacceptable". "Hama has been the target Monday of a military campaign in the aftermath of the visit by observers in neighborhoods of the city where they had met with residents who shared their sufferings," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

"The Syrian armed forces heavily shelled the neighborhoods of al-Arbaine and al-Mashaa Arbaine," according to NGOs.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday expressed outrage about the possible repression of citizens cooperating with the U.N. observers sent to Syria, saying it could undermine the peace plan.

In Geneva, the World Food Programme announced that it wanted to help 500,000 Syrians "in the coming weeks," which is double the target set for the month of April. The WFP, which is helping hundreds of thousands of Syrians in Homs, Hama, Idlib and Damascus, now intends to "increase food assistance to meet the needs of 250,000 people" and to prepare for increase in the number to half a million "in the coming weeks."

Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/04/25/210109.html