Al Arabiya, 25 April 2012- Syria 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 the Syrian People” group, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday, as international envoy Kofi Annan called for the rapid deployment of 300 ceasefire monitors in the country.

As many as 11 people have been killed by the gunfire of Syrian forces on Wednesday, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian activists. At least 32 people were killed across the country on Tuesday, Al Arabiya reported.

Speaking after U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous briefed the Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Ladsous told the 15-nation panel that Damascus was putting restrictions on the deployment of truce monitors.
“Mr. Ladsous reported that the Syrian government has refused at least one observer based on his nationality, and that Syrian authorities have stated they will not accept UNSMIS staff members from any nations that are members of the ‘Friends of Democratic Syria’,” Rice told reporters, according to Reuters.

“He underscored that from the U.N.’s point of view, this is entirely unacceptable,” she said.

The 14-nation “Friends” group includes the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, all of which have said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost his legitimacy because of his 13-month assault on pro-democracy protesters that has brought Syria to the brink of civil war.

Rice also confirmed that Ladsous had told the council it would be another month before 100 of the maximum of 300 unarmed military observers who will comprise the U.N. monitoring mission reach Syria to help supervise the country’s fragile 12-day-old ceasefire.

She said council members considered the speed of the deployment too slow.
UNSMIS — the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria — is to be deployed for an initial period of three months.

Situation is “unacceptable”
 
U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, U.N.-Arab League envoy Annan called for the rapid deployment of 300 ceasefire monitors in Syria, in a briefing to the Security Council, a copy of which was obtained by Al Arabiya.

Annan said Assad has still not fulfilled a promise to end violence and said the situation was “bleak” and “unacceptable.”

The special envoy said he was “particularly alarmed” at reports that government forces had entered the city of Hama after a visit by U.N. monitors and killed “a significant” number of people.

“If confirmed this is totally unacceptable and reprehensible,” he told the council.

The Syrian League for Human Rights said nine activists were “summarily executed” by government forces in Hama on Monday, a day after they met U.N. observers in the city, according to AFP.

Video footage posted online by activists showed a street in Hama’s Arbaeen neighborhood with large pools of blood and women weeping.

The council was told there are now 11 U.N. observers in place and the 30-strong advance party of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) is expected to be in place by the end of the week.

The Security Council voted on Saturday to send the full UNSMIS force, only days after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for 300 monitors.

“We must ensure that the momentum generated by the council’s speedy decision is not lost,” Annan said. “The expeditious deployment of UNSMIS,” he added, “is crucial.”

“We need eyes and ears on the ground, able to move freely and quickly, and to engage all parties — something which must be guaranteed by the Syrian authorities.”

“Sustained pressure and engagement from the international community is essential,” Annan said.

The Syrian government wrote to Annan on Saturday saying that troops and heavy weapons had been withdrawn from cities in line with promises made to the envoy.

But Annan’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said earlier that satellite imagery had since shown that the government has not yet removed heavy weapons.

Annan brokered a cessation of hostilities which started on April 12, but the killing has continued, strengthening the doubts of Western nations that Assad will halt his crackdown on a 13-month-old uprising. The U.N. says well over 9,000 people have been killed.

Car bomb blast
Meanwhile, three Syrian military officers were killed in Damascus on Tuesday, state media and opposition groups said, and at least three people were wounded in a car bomb blast in the capital.

SANA, the state news agency, said an “armed terrorist group” shot dead two army officers near Damascus, while the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a third was killed in the capital’s Barzeh neighborhood.

Damascus residents said the explosion in a pickup truck directly outside an Iranian cultural center, in a popular shopping district, was loud but caused limited damage.

Windows in nearby shops were not shattered and there were no signs of damage to the center, run by Assad’s powerful regional ally, Tehran. Shopkeepers said four people were injured, including a taxi driver, Reuters reported.

The pro-Assad Ikhbaria television channel blamed the blast on “armed terrorists” — shorthand for the rebels who have been fighting to overthrow the president, inspired by Arab Spring uprisings against autocratic rulers in North Africa and the Middle East.

Damascus says 2,600 of its security personnel have died at the hands of insurgents who have seized control of pockets of towns and cities across the country of 23 million and who continue to launch guerrilla attacks.

SANA said officials on the Syria-Lebanon border had seized a car carrying ammunition and weapons, including three machine guns and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.