Bildt 'worried' about UN withdrawal from Syria
The UN's decision to pull back an observer force from Syria is "very worrying," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told the TT news agency. The decision underlines the international community's inability to stem the violence, which continued to claim victims on Friday.
“It is obviously very worrying that the UN presence is now reduced so significantly. Although the possibilities of influencing the UN Mission have been much more limited than we had hoped for, they have of course been an opportunity to observe the development and sometimes an opportunity to do work for individuals,” said Bildt to TT.
The army clashed with rebels near a military airport close to Damascus, and shelled the capital's southern outskirts with artillery, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), wrote AFP.
Parts of Aleppo and the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr (Deir Ezzor) have been ravaged by conflict during the day, and at least twenty lives have been required. There is no independent confirmation that the data does not exist.
The surrounding world is powerless to act before the violence and the UN Security Council decided on Thursday to withdraw the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) from Syria. UNSMIS was established in April but was forced in June to cancel its patrols because of the attacks.
Bildt told Sveriges Radio (SR) on Friday that some 1,000 Swedes of Syrian-Kurdish background are currently stranded in the country.
"We are dealing with a rather tricky consular situation where we are trying to help these people home via Turkey in different ways," said Bildt to SR.
TT/The Local/og
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“It is obviously very worrying that the UN presence is now reduced so significantly. Although the possibilities of influencing the UN Mission have been much more limited than we had hoped for, they have of course been an opportunity to observe the development and sometimes an opportunity to do work for individuals,” said Bildt to TT.
The army clashed with rebels near a military airport close to Damascus, and shelled the capital's southern outskirts with artillery, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), wrote AFP.
Parts of Aleppo and the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr (Deir Ezzor) have been ravaged by conflict during the day, and at least twenty lives have been required. There is no independent confirmation that the data does not exist.
The surrounding world is powerless to act before the violence and the UN Security Council decided on Thursday to withdraw the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) from Syria. UNSMIS was established in April but was forced in June to cancel its patrols because of the attacks.
Bildt told Sveriges Radio (SR) on Friday that some 1,000 Swedes of Syrian-Kurdish background are currently stranded in the country.
"We are dealing with a rather tricky consular situation where we are trying to help these people home via Turkey in different ways," said Bildt to SR.
TT/The Local/og
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