The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to approve a resolution to allow international observers into Syria to monitor a shaky cease-fire, as reports of clashes continued to emerge from across the country.
The resolution calls on the Middle Eastern nation to allow the deployment of an advance team of up to 30 international observers and give them unimpeded freedom of movement. It remains unclear, however, if the deployment will help stem the violence that continues despite an official cease-fire called days earlier.
The U.N. resolution, the first on Syria since violence gripped the country more than a year ago, also calls on all parties to end armed violence.
Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin said Moscow, which has previously blocked the council's resolutions, was satisfied that the text required all sides to stop fighting.
"There have been too many casualties, too much suffering to befall the Syrian people," Churkin said.
He warned that the unrest could affect regional peace and stability, describing the timing of the council's decision as an "extremely critical juncture."
Churkin noted that while Russia supports Saturday's resolution, dialogue about the future political process "is something which unfortunately is missing." He said his country has been discouraged by a lack of objective information and has called on the Syrian government to allow international journalists to enter.
Russia and China have so far blocked Security Council attempts to pass resolutions condemning the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The two countries have said they want the violence to stop but argued that previous resolutions were not even-handed.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice welcomed the long-awaited resolution, but said the United States was "under no illusions" about its immediate effect. She called the deployment "an important test of the Syrian government's intentions," before a broader observer mission can develop.
Rice, the current Security Council president, pointed to reports of ongoing violence, which already are "raising renewed doubts about the sincerity" of Syrian authorities to end hostilities.
The country's recent shelling of the city of Homs "absolutely" constitutes a violation of the current cease-fire, she said.
Syria's U.N. ambassador responded Saturday by saying "the ball now is in the camp of those supporting the armed groups in Syria."
"Double standards and double language will not be sufficient to prove the credibility of those who are manipulating the armed groups, supporting them, hosting them, training them and pushing them towards committing further violence in Syria," Bashar Jaafari said.
The Syrian ambassador also called for a lifting of sanctions, saying that it's costing Syria billions of dollars. But while the council's resolution to allow in observers "does not satisfy us fully," he said, his country "will be on board."
Moments earlier, Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant of the United Kingdom said that a narrow window now exists to improve conditions on the ground.
The U.K., he said, welcomes the resolution, but regrets "that it comes only after the Syrian people have for over one year suffered unimaginable brutality at the hands of a regime that has prioritized its own survival over the needs, rights and aspirations of the people it should serve and protect."
Peter Wittig, the German ambassador to the U.N., said it comes "deplorably late, but hopefully not too late."
"We must remain vigilant," he added. "Too many commitments made by Damascus in the past have not been kept. We must not tolerate further brinkmanship."
Meanwhile, activists in Syria reported Saturday that government forces again targeted opposition neighborhoods, despite the fragile cease-fire that has been in place since dawn Thursday as part of a six-point peace plan laid out by international special envoy Kofi Annan.
In escalating attacks, at least 20 people were killed by security forces, said the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) of Syria, a network of opposition activists. State media also reported the clashes, describing them as encounters between security forces and "armed terrorists."
The cease-fire, which is part of the peace plan, went into effect at dawn Thursday.
Other demands of the Annan plan include the release of detainees, allowing access for humanitarian aid and international media, and the withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from residential areas.
Syria, however, is not in full compliance with the plan, and troops and heavy weapons remain in population centers despite an agreement to withdraw, said Rice.
At least 11 people were killed Saturday in the flashpoint city of Homs, where the Syrian army resumed mortar shelling in several neighborhoods, opposition groups said.
Abu Abdel Rahman, a spokesman for Sham News Network, described how a cameraman on his way to film the shelling was among those killed in the city.
Five more people were killed in the western city of Aleppo, three of them as regime forces opened fire on mourners at a funeral, the LCC said.
Amateur video, apparently posted online Saturday, showed people running amid sounds of heavy gunfire. CNN cannot confirm the video's authenticity.
Syrian state TV later reported that security forces had clashed with armed terrorist groups in Aleppo who were firing at civilians. SANA, the state-run news agency, said two law enforcement officers were killed and an army colonel kidnapped in separate attacks by armed terrorists. The government has consistently pointed to "armed terrorists" as a prime cause of the unrest.
In Daraa, government troops opened fire on protesters, injuring at least 20, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based opposition group. Regime forces also arrested five people after raids on homes, it said.
Opposition groups and journalists also reported heavy gunfire Saturday near a refugee camp along the Syria-Turkey border.
The attacks come a day after protesters poured onto Syria's streets, seemingly testing whether al-Assad would stick to a provision in Annan's peace plan that allows for peaceful demonstrations.
But Annan's spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said Friday that there was still a long way still to go.
"We are worried about the operational deployment of heavy armor in population centers," he said. "They do not belong there. And we are working with the government and with the opposition for a full cessation of violence in all its forms."
And more violence is likely, he noted.
"We are under no illusion that we have come to the end of this conflict," Fawzi said. "This is only the beginning of a long road towards reconciling and towards building the future that Syrians aspire to."
Syria's anti-government protests erupted in March last year, followed by a bloody government crackdown on civilians and opposition groups, which have sprung up in various cities across the country.
The United Nations estimates at least 9,000 people have died since the protests began, while opposition groups put the death toll at more than 11,000.
