UNITED NATIONS: UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to demand that Syrian troops are moved away from protest cities back to their barracks, UN envoys said.
Envoys at a closed Security Council meeting also quoted Annan as saying that while the Syrian government is technically not meeting commitments to a peace plan a current fragile ceasefire was "a chance to be seized."
Annan asked the 15-nation council to demand that Syrian troops be ordered back to barracks and to authorize the quick deployment of an observer mission, a diplomat in the meeting said.
His plan would be for a small initial observer force to be followed with reinforcements so that Annan's six-point peace plan can be fully monitored, the diplomat said.
Another envoy said all council members at the meeting were "realistic" about the challenges in Syria, but that the ceasefire was "a glimmer of hope."
The envoy said "rapid council action" to support Annan was likely.
Any deployment of a UN monitoring mission would require a UN Security Council resolution. Russia and China have vetoed the two attempts so far to pass resolutions on the crisis in Syria where the UN says more than 9,000 people have been killed in the past 13 months.
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