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Reconciliation minister meets Ladsous, discuss supervisors'' mission

(With photos) DAMASCUS, July 26 (KUNA) -- United Nations Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous Thursday met with Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar and discussed the UN observers' mission after the reduction in number of personnel and length of the mission mandate to just one month.
The meeting was attended by General Babacar Gaye, Head of UN Supervision Mission in Syria, and the discussion focused on mechanism of cooperation between the ministry and the mission on the ground, in view of the political process required to realize genuine reconciliation in Syria.
In remarks after the meeting, the minister said he had re-presented a proposal of deploying 10,000 specialized Syrian observers to work alongside the UN team. The proposal would be considered in the few coming days, and the response, he added, would show whether the mission was truly committed to its stated mandate and objective.
The ministry is ready to work out all that impedes the work of the mission, if the intentions are indeed honest and honorable, he remarked, so that it may truly meet its responsibility and hold those truly responsible for the violence accountable.
The minister further questioned the validity of the mission and the weight the UN truly assigns to it in view of the fact that the reports the team sends to the UN are not accredited. Had there been an honest desire to guarantee the best interest of the Syrian people and a truly objective unbiased Security Council, he stressed, the reports of the team would be sufficient and there would not be reliance on reports by other parties of unknown or questionable interests.
The minister further criticized over-crediting media, which he stressed is another weapon used in the war on Syria.
Stopping violence and initiating a political process is, first and foremost, Syria's top interest, and not an invention of the Security Council. The Syrians, Haidar said, agreed to the plan presented by UN-Arab League Envoy Kofi Annan not because he presented anything new, but because he expressed an international desire that matched that of Syria in seeing the nation out of the cycle of violence and reaching a solution for the political crisis.
Haidar further said he was "amazed" at those who change priorities. "We started with the whole world, even those calling themselves the opposition, demanding stop of violence as pre-requisite for starting talks. Now, everybody is turning a blind eye to this point and jumping to the next step of political process and measures." He said he considers this running away from the issue, even if it is running forward, seemingly.
What is most important is not flashy headlines, but guaranteeing the conditions for success of any political process that would serve the whole of Syria. Stopping violence, he noted, is the top condition that must be established. (end) tk.wsa KUNA 261619 Jul 12NNNN