In
Syria,
Mood Will
Leave After 3
Months,
Downgraded
Mission for
Ladsous?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 29 --
Robert Mood
will not
continue in
Syria when the
three month
Mission
mandate
expires,
Security
Council
sources have
exclusively
told Inner
City Press.
Rather
than
convert Mood's
observer
mission into
an armed
peacekeeping
mission,
as some had
proposed, now
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
intends to
downgrade it
to a
"political
mission" led
by a
civilians,
even smaller
than the
current 300
person UNSMIS.
To
some this
seems like
throwing in
the towel. A
more cynical
view is that
some in
the West and
Gulf want
things to get
worse in
Syria, either
to
justify
further arming
the rebels, or
to intervene.
It
is under this
logic that
Ban's French
head of
peacekeeping Herve
Ladsous gave
Security
Council's a
notice on June
15, as
exclusively
reported
by Inner City
Press that
day, which
claimed
that UNSMIS
had
limited its
mobile
operations as
of 6 pm Syria
time that day.
But
Inner City
Press sources
in Damascus'
Hotel Dama
Rose say that
Mood was
unaware
on the night
of June 15 of
the shut down,
and that his
men including
Moroccan
deputy went
out on patrol
on the morning
on June 16.
Could
this be among
the reasons
that Mood will
not continue
past July 20?
Or is this
notification
intended to be
an ultimatum?
In
the run up to
tomorrow's
ministerial
talks in
Geneva, some
well placed
Council
sources tell
Inner City
Press not
matter what is
agreed there,
"neither side
in Syria will
implement it."
They predict
further
escalation:
"the
government
used light
arms, so the
rebels got
them. The
government
used tanks,
and suddenly
the rebels
got anti-tank
weapons" from
Qatar and
Saudi Arabia.
"Now
that the
government's
using
helicopters,
the rebels
will get
surface
to air
missiles and
shoot one
down. Then
what?"
General
Mood... is
leaving, Inner
City Press can
exclusively
report. Watch
this site.
, 
