Syria unrest: UN to send humanitarian mission

18 August 2011

The UN is to send a humanitarian mission to Syria on Saturday to assess the situation there after Damascus' violent crackdown on protesters.

The UN humanitarian chief said Damascus had pledged the mission "will have full access to where we want to go".
Earlier, the US and several major EU nations urged Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Syria has repeated that army operations against protesters have ended, a claim not independently verified.

Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said it was "already a fact on the ground, the military and police operations stopped in Syria".

President Assad had said the same in a phone call with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Mr Ja'afari also accused the US of waging a "diplomatic and humanitarian was" against Syria..
[link to www.bbc.co.uk]