The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution allowing 300 unarmed military observers to monitor the ceasefire in Syria, Press TV reports.
The resolution 2043 adopted on Saturday states that unarmed military observer monitors will be deployed if UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon decides the conditions on the ground are safe enough for their deployment.
Earlier in the day, an advance team of UN observers visited Syria's western province of Homs to monitor a ceasefire brokered by UN-Arab league envoy, Kofi Annan.
The observers met with the provincial governor and toured the Baba Amr neighborhood in the city of Homs.
The city of Homs, the provincial capital, has been the scene of heavy clashes between Syrian forces and armed groups earlier in the year.
The UN monitors have also visited southern province of Daraa and some suburbs of the capital Damascus since arriving on Sunday.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Hisham Jaber, director of the Center for Middle East Studies, to share his opinion on this issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: How do you see this latest resolution? Do you think it is something that will help the situation improve in Syria? Is it moving in the right direction?
Jaber: Yes, of course maybe it is a good decision to push the plan of Annan in the right way but it is not enough in my opinion based on the experience and personally I am not that optimistic about the success of the Annan’s plan.
Press TV: Why is that the case?
Jaber: Because Annan himself said that the ceasefire is very fragile and it is not that solid. First of all when you talk about ceasefire you are talking about two sides.
On one hand you have the regime, the regime is responsible, the government is responsible to respect its word and its commitment towards the international community and the Security Council and the regime has one single leadership.
On the other hand you have the insurgents. The insurgents do not have at all one single and unique leadership and everybody knows that the insurgent if they do belong to the opposition and what so-called National Council of the opposition, what about other groups who are fighting-- group of terrorism-- who are fighting the government and they will not respect the ceasefire.
That is the reason made Mr. Annan to say that the ceasefire is very fragile and it may not stay.
If we want to be optimistic we have to wait and to see after the arrival of 300 observers, after their deployment and the government of Syria showed a lot of positive behavior and said it will cooperate with them and will offer to them logistic support and security but they must work under the ceiling of sovereignty of Syria and according to the international laws.
We have to wait and to see if the United States and the European Union can make pressure on the Arab countries who are supporting the insurgents and the opposition to respect the ceasefire.
AHK/JR
