The head of the UN observer mission in Syria Maj Gen Robert Mood has called on president Bashar Assad and the country's opposition to stop fighting and allow a tenuous ceasefire to take hold. The UN has authorised 300 observers to enter the country.
The head of the UN observer mission in Syria has called on President Bashar Assad and the country's opposition to stop fighting and allow a tenuous ceasefire to take hold.
Maj Gen Robert Mood spoke after arriving in the Syrian capital Damascus to take charge of an advance team of 16 UN monitors trying to salvage an international peace plan to end the country's 13-month crisis.
Under the plan, a ceasefire is supposed to lead to talks between Assad and the opposition on a political solution to a conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people.
Mr Mood told reporters that the 300 observers the UN has authorised for the mission "cannot solve all the problems" in Syria, asking for co-operation from forces loyal to Assad as well as rebels seeking to end his rule.
"We want to have combined efforts focusing on the welfare of the Syrian people," he said. "True cessation of violence in all its forms."
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad has criticised the UN, claiming that the government are being 'unfairly targeted'.
Major General Robert Mood is the man tasked with leading the mission to observe a ceasefire in Syria.