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| Violence is escalating in Syria |
The 90-day duration for the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria or UNSMIS has expired by mid-day Saturday according to the Vietnamese time. On Friday, the UN Security Council approved the UK’s proposal to extend the UN mandate in Syria for a final period of 30 days. The new decision clarified that the UN Security Council will consider the extension for the mission when parties involved in Syria stop using heavy weapons and violence so that the mission can implement its international peace activities there.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in many hot-spots in Syria. Many countries have planned to evacuate about 3,000 citizens out of the country due to violent risks. The Brazilian Embassy announced to temporarily close its embassy in Damascus and move diplomatic staff to Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut. Brazil is the first Latin American country to have declared the closure of its diplomatic representative office in Syria. Chile has asked 158 its citizens to try their best to leave there as soon as possible because of security reasons. 75 Argentina nationals have informed their Embassy in Syria to depart from this nation. The Filipino Government has sent a group of personnel to Syria to support 9,000 civilians to come back home.
According to Syria’s Observatory for Human Rights, at least 49 people were killed in Syria on Friday alone, 41 of them are civilians. Syria’s Intelligence Agency Hisham Bekhtyar died of heavy wounds caused by Wednesday’s bomb attack at the National Security Headquarter in Damascus. The Syrian Information Ministry denied claims saying that President Bashar al-Assad was ready to step down.