Ben Hilli also asserted that Iran should be included in the Syria Contact Group meeting which is due to be held in Geneva on June 30th, "In my view, all the players taking part in the Syrian crisis must be part of this contact group," he said.
He also called on a reassessment of the Annan plan, stating the need to “find a new mechanism” to ensure that all sides observe the peace proposals.
Ben Helli said a provision in the U.N. charter which allows the Security Council to authorise actions ranging from sanctions to military intervention was needed to bolster the peace plan.
"As we see, neither side is stopping the fighting, therefore I think we'll have to use Chapter 7 in order to realise the Annan plan," he said, despite reiterating that the Arab League did not support military intervention.
The comments come as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the deaths of 98 people across the country on Wednesday, half of whom were civilians.
Reports indicate renewed fighting on Thursday with machinegun and mortar fire in and around Homs killing at least four people.
Meanwhile two civilians have been killed in the town of Qusayr to the south-west of Homs by heavy government shelling as helicopters hovered overhead. Elsewhere, clashes between government forces and rebels in the north-western province of Iblib in Deraa in the south have killed at least 15 people.
The violence continues despite an agreed temporary truce between both sides to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and Arab Red Crescent to evacuate injured civilians from Homs and distribute humanitarian goods such as medical kits in the neighbourhoods that have endured shelling and clashes for the past 10 days.
"Hundreds of civilians are stuck in the old city of Homs, unable to leave and find refuge in safer areas, because of the ongoing armed confrontations," said the ICRC's head of operations for the region, Beatrice Megevand-Roggo.
Source: Telegraph
0 comments:
Post a Comment