Syria slams UN call for unilateral ceasefire as "incomplete"

Syrian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday slammed as "incomplete and contained half of the truth" the calls of the UN chief Ban Ki-moon who said recently that the Syrian government has to "immediately declare a unilateral ceasefire." Syria's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jihad Makdissi said that Ban proposed implementing unilateral ceasefire and, in the same UN session, the Syrian side informed him that Syria has already implemented this proposal twice. Makdissi charged that in both times, the armed groups exploited the government's commitment to the ceasefire and consolidated their presence in several areas. Since then, Makdissi said, the human losses among military and civilians have doubled due to the terrorist operations carried out by these groups in violation of the truce. "We agreed with the UN secretary-general that the truce aims at creating appropriate atmosphere for the desired political dialogue and not to undermine Syria's stability and exploit the commitment of the Syrian state," Makdissi noted. He said that his country has "asked the secretary-general to send his envoys to the concerned countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey which fund, harbor, train and arm the armed groups in order to ensure these countries' commitment to refrain from such acts." Ban recently said that "It has been over 19 months during which time more than 20-thousand people have been killed," adding that the situation has reached such an unacceptable level. "That is why I have conveyed my strong message to the Syrian government that they should immediately declare a unilateral ceasefire," he said.