The UN Security Council on Thursday adopted a presidential statement to support April 10 deadline put forward by Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League joint special envoy for Syria to end the crisis in the Middle East.
“The Security Council calls on the Syrian government to implement urgently and visibly its commitment” to observe the April 10 deadline to halt fighting and withdraw its troops from population centres, the statement said.
The Security Council further called on the Syrian government to “cease troop movements toward population centres, cease all use of heavy weapons in such centres and begin pullback of military concentrations in and around populations centres and to fulfil them in their entirety not later than April 10,” the statement said.
The presidential statement, the third of its kind since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in March, was drafted by the U.S. in cooperation with Britain, France and Germany, diplomats said.
A presidential statement, adopted by consensus, is not legally binding, and does not carry the weight of a Security Council resolution.
The adoption of a council resolution requires at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes from the five permanent members of the 15-nation council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
On Monday, Annan, in briefing the Security Council, said that the Syrian government had accepted the
deadline, but Syria wanted Annan to get the same commitment from the Syrian opposition.
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