UNSC calls on Syria to comply with deadline

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council on Thursday adopted a presidential statement to voice its support for an April 10 deadline put forward by Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League joint special envoy for Syria, to end the year-long crisis in the Middle East country.

"The Security Council calls upon the Syrian government to implement urgently and visibly its commitment" to observe the April 10 deadline to halt fighting and withdraw its troops from population centers, the statement said.

The Security Council called on the Syrian government to "cease troop movements towards population centers," "cease all use of heavy weapons in such centers" and "begin pullback of military concentrations in and around populations centers and to fulfil these in their entirety by no later than 10 April 2012," the statement said.

The presidential statement, the third of its kind since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in March last year, was drafted by the United States in cooperation with Britain, France and Germany, diplomats said.

A presidential statement, adopted by consensus, is not legally binding, and does not carry the weight of a Security Council resolution. The adoption of a council resolution requires at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes from the five permanent members of the 15-nation council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

On Monday, Annan, in briefing the Security Council, said that the Syrian government had accepted the deadline, but Syria wants Annan to get the same commitment from the Syrian opposition.

Annan, the former UN secretary-general who mediated peace in Syria on behalf of the United Nations and the Arab League, also sought support of the Security Council for the April 10 deadline.