UN observer 90-day mission expired, the mandate was renewed on July 20 for 30 days and Major General Robert Mood has been replaced by Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, who has already taken up his post in Damascus.
While some people may say that Maj.Gen. Mood did not do a good job leading the mission but this is actually a good move so that the truth from an independent monitor can be out there and no longer be suppressed while the new head of UN Observer mission can monitor afresh to report independently. He may report differently and this his should be the Syrian govt's final opportunity to manage the situation anew. However, from the reports of escalating violence by Govt forces on Aleppo, etc things are pointing in the opposite direction.
"In my opinion it is only a matter of time before a regime that is using such heavy military power and disproportional violence against the civilian population is going to fall ...However, the authoritarian Syrian leader is probably secure in the short term because he has the military capability to hold off the rebels and his eventual fall could be months or even years away ...
Mood, who commanded a 400-strong mission, was unable to stop the escalating violence and said organised groups with artillery, mortars and mechanized formations were responsible for some of the violence in Syrian villages."
- Not sure if this last paragraph is referring to the armed opposition. In any event, what is clear to outsiders is that the Opposition continues to be fragmented and as such, they cannot win the war unless they become united. United they will stand and divided, they will fall, to the detriment of the Syrian people.
Update: There are local Syrians who claim that there is no problem in Damascus but it's external groups who are causing the trouble. Some refugees who had crossed over the Lebanon border have this different point of view. Al Jazeera cannot verify this as their reporters are not allowed to cross the border to do so.
UN observer 90-day mission expired, the mandate was renewed on July 20 for 30 days and Major General Robert Mood has been replaced by Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye, who has already taken up his post in Damascus.
While some people may say that Maj.Gen. Mood did not do a good job leading the mission but this is actually a good move so that the truth from an independent monitor can be out there and no longer be suppressed while the new head of UN Observer mission can monitor afresh to report independently. He may report differently and this his should be the Syrian govt's final opportunity to manage the situation anew. However, from the reports of escalating violence by Govt forces on Aleppo, etc things are pointing in the opposite direction.
Anyway, Major General Robert Mood, the former head of the U.N. monitoring mission in Syria, said yesterday ...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/27/syria-conflict-assad-fall_n_170...
"In my opinion it is only a matter of time before a regime that is using such heavy military power and disproportional violence against the civilian population is going to fall ...However, the authoritarian Syrian leader is probably secure in the short term because he has the military capability to hold off the rebels and his eventual fall could be months or even years away ...
Mood, who commanded a 400-strong mission, was unable to stop the escalating violence and said organised groups with artillery, mortars and mechanized formations were responsible for some of the violence in Syrian villages."
- Not sure if this last paragraph is referring to the armed opposition. In any event, what is clear to outsiders is that the Opposition continues to be fragmented and as such, they cannot win the war unless they become united. United they will stand and divided, they will fall, to the detriment of the Syrian people.
Update: There are local Syrians who claim that there is no problem in Damascus but it's external groups who are causing the trouble. Some refugees who had crossed over the Lebanon border have this different point of view. Al Jazeera cannot verify this as their reporters are not allowed to cross the border to do so.