United Nations:
As violence in Syria worsens, India has called on all parties within and outside the troubled country to fully cooperate with international envoy Kofi Annan to bring an end to the crisis.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, addressing a Security Council open debate on the situation in the Middle East yesterday, said India does not see an alternative to the full implementation of UN resolutions 2042 and 2043 "for a political resolution of the crisis without any further bloodshed".
UN resolution 2042, unanimously adopted in April this year, had authorised an advance team of up to 30 unarmed military observers to monitor the ceasefire in Syria, while calling again on the Syrian government to begin a pull-back of military forces from population centres and cease the use of heavy weaponry in those areas.
A week later in April, the Council had adopted resolution 2043 which established, for an initial 90-day period, a UN supervision mission in Syria comprising an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to monitor a cessation of armed violence "in all its forms by all parties" as well as the full implementation of the United Nations Joint Special Envoy's six-point proposal to end the conflict.
Puri said "a right step" would be for all sides to implement resolution 2059 adopted unanimously by the Council last week which extended the mandate of the UN observer mission in Syria for a final period of 30 days.
"It is necessary that all parties, inside and outside Syria, fully cooperate with Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan," Puri added.
The crisis in Syria has continued unabated since the uprising against President Bashar Al Assad began 16 months ago.
The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced.
The UNSC had last week failed to adopt a resolution that would have threatened Assad's regime with sanctions after Russia and China vetoed the resolution.