EU committed to Annan's peace plan on Syria: official
The ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Syria stressed on Saturday the EU's commitment to the initiative for peace by the UN-Arab League joint envoy for Syria Kofi Annan.
Vassilis Bontosoglou told Xinhua at the international airport of the Syrian capital of Damascus that the EU will do its utmost in order to help Annan and UN observer team in Syria.
"What you are seeing today is one of the assistance which the European Union is providing to the Annan initiative," he said, referring to the arrival of a new assistance shipment from the EU, including 25 armored vehicles, to the UN monitor mission in Syria.
Bontosoglou stressed the EU commitment to Annan's peace plan, which calls mainly on all parties to curb violence in order to pave the way for a political end to Syria's 14-month unrest.
The EU assistance came apparently to provide more protection to the UN observers, who have come under attacks twice while touring restive Syrian cities.
On Friday, a convoy of UN observers was pelted with stones by an unidentified group of people near a suburban area of the capital.
The convoy was attacked while heading to the suburb of Dumair, northeast of Damascus, witnesses said, adding that one of the UN vehicles was slightly damaged with smashed window, but none of the observers were injured.
Last Wednesday, a roadside bomb ripped through a UN convoy while it was en route to the southern Daraa province, injuring eight members of the accompanying security forces.
The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army has recently said that UN observers have become "perjurers," and added that his forces will not stay calm for long. He claimed that the failure of the UN mission would positively reverberate on the welfare of rebels, "as some countries have progressive attitudes toward arming the rebels. "
The UN observes' spokesman said Friday that 150 observers are now on the ground in Syria, 105 of them unarmed military monitors.
Source: Middle East News.Net
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