Syria Expands ICRC Work, Receives UN Team

Local Editor

Syria has agreed to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to expand its work in the country as a UN advance team arrived in Damascus on Thursday.

In a statement issued at the end of his visit to Damascus, where he met several ministers, ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said: "this means that we will have to rapidly build up our human resources and logistical capacity in Syria."

"ICRC officials would resume visits to detention centers, stalled since September, with a visit planned to detainees in custody at Aleppo central prison," the statement said.

"Syrian officials and Kellenberger also reached an agreement on a procedure under which the agency could request a humanitarian pause in the fighting in an area so as to evacuate the wounded and bring in supplies," spokesman Hicham Hassan said.

The humanitarian development came as an advance UN team led by Norwegian Major-General Robert Mood arrived in Damascus for talks with Syrian officials on the deployment of troops to monitor the ceasefire.
In this context, the spokesman for UN envoy Kofi Annan Ahmad Fawzi declared Thursday that "the planning team is all in Damascus now."

There are about 10 or 11 of them," Fawzi told Reuters in Geneva.
The peacekeeping team flew into the Syrian capital from Geneva and New York to negotiate deployment of 200-250 unarmed monitors to be deployed after the agreed April 10 deadline for Syria to withdraw its troops from cities.
Syrian authorities told UN special envoy Kofi Annan that it had already begun withdrawing its forces from three flashpoint cities.

"Yes they [Syrians] have told us that they have begun withdrawing troops from certain areas," Fawzi announced pointing out that "the Syrians have specified three cities - Daraa, Idlib, and Zabadani."
He further expected that "on the 10th of April ...there will be a complete cessation of all forms of violence by all parties with 48 hours that includes of course the Syrian opposition and the Syrian government."

It is worth mentioning that Annan would hold talks in Tehran on April 11 with senior Iranian officials on Syria.

Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org