Syrian army must ‘make the first move’ to end violence: Robert Mood

By Areeb Hasni May 4th, 2012 ( No Comment )

Damascus: The head of the U.N. military observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood, said on Thursday that it was the responsibility of the Syrian army to make the first move to halt the violence, while the White House said the international community must “admit defeat” if a U.N.-backed peace plan fails.

During a visit to the battered central city of Homs Mood said that If you have two individuals using on each other all their weapons, who is going to be the first one to move the finger? Who is going to be the first one to make the move?

“My approach to that is that the strongest part needs to make the first move,” he told reporters.

“I was referring to the Syrian government and the Syrian army. They have the strength, they have the position and they also have the potential generosity to make the first step in a good direction,” he said, when pressed on whether he was speaking about the regime forces.

The United Nations has accused both sides to the conflict of failing to abide by the terms of the ceasefire which it has admitted was not holding.

Some 300 unarmed U.N. observers are to oversee the truce. An advance team began arriving in the country last month and their number has slowly increased and is supposed to reach the full complement in coming weeks.

Although the level of violence has gone down since the truce went into effect, there are still daily clashes and casualties reported.

The Observatory said more than 600 people have died since the truce went into effect, the majority of them civilians.

It is to be mentioned here that more than 9000 innocent people have been brutally killed by Syrian government led by Bashar-al-Assad regime.