Annan Spokesman Says Plan for Syria is 'On Track',
U.N. mediator Kofi Annan's plan for Syria is "on track", though progress in implementing the ceasefire is slow, his spokesman said Friday.
"The Annan plan is on track and a crisis that has been going on for over a year is not going to be resolved in a day or a week," Ahmed Fawzi, the U.N. and Arab League envoy's spokesman, told journalists in Geneva.
"There are signs on the ground of movement, albeit slow and small," he added.
"Some heavy weapons have been withdrawn, some heavy weapons remain. Some violence has receded, some violence continues. And that is not satisfactory, I'm not saying it is."
Overall, Fawzi said, the plan and the U.N. observers who are on the ground overseeing its implementation -- a team he reported had grown to about 50 by Friday -- have had an impact.
But he decried continuing violence between President Bashar Assad's regime and opposition forces in a conflict that has killed more than 11,000 people since flaring in March 2011.
"This is a difficult and complex mediation effort. There are days when things are progressing in a satisfactory manner and there are days where we feel that it's a rough ride," he said.
"However having said that, even on the days that we feel there is satisfactory progress... we are horrified by the extent of the violence that we see on the ground."
Source: Agence France Presse
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