Syria-U.N. sign agreement on monitoring mission
DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria and the United Nations signed an agreement on Thursday on the terms of a ceasefire monitoring mission, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said.
“This preliminary agreement … aims to facilitate the task of the observers within the framework of Syrian sovereignty,” the statement said. A statement from U.N.-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan said the Syrian government and the United Nations had agreed a basis for a “protocol” on the deployment of more observers.
“This agreement outlines the functions of the observers as they fulfill their mandate in Syria and the tasks and responsibilities of the Syrian government,” Ahmad Fawzi, Annan’s spokesman, said in a statement.
Fawzi said Annan’s team was holding “similar discussions with representatives of the opposition on the tasks and responsibilities of the armed opposition groups.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/us-syria-agreement-idUSBRE83I0LQ20120419
The emphasis is on the need for the cease fire to work, not for military intervention.
The number of displaced people has increased to where it is is inching up to what happened in Iraq.
Below is better reporting of the same event that was posted earlier (emphasis added):
WASHINGTON DC, United States – The U.S. military is working on additional ways to try to halt the unending violence in Syria, but diplomacy remains the foremost option, Pentagon leaders told Congress on Thursday.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, outlined the steps the United States is taking to pressure the regime of President Bashar Assad, including sanctions, direct non-lethal support to the opposition such as communications equipment and emergency humanitarian assistance of $25 million. But the two made clear that unilateral military action is far from a solution.
“There is no silver bullet,” Panetta told the House Armed Services Committee. “At the same time, the situation is of grave consequence to the Syrian people.”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_SYRIA_CONGRESS?SECTION=HOME&SITE=AP&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
