UN Considers Sending up to 10,000 Peacekeepers to Syria - source

NEW YORK, December 15 (RIA Novosti) - The United Nations considers sending from 4,000 to 10,000 peacekeepers to Syria, a diplomatic source told RIA Novosti on Friday.

The source said that envoys of countries whose servicemen constitute the UN peacekeeping contingent, met on Friday to discuss various scenarios of events in Syria.

“The problem is that the UN has no extra resources. The UN has a contingent of about 115,000 peacekeepers in various countries, but in order to send [a peacekeeping mission] to Syria, [the UN] will have to withdraw them from somewhere,” the source said.

UN and Arab League peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi stressed on November 29 that a peacekeeping mission was needed in the country, devastated by a 20-month-long civil conflict. The hostilities between the government troops and opposition forces has claimed the lives of at least 30,000 people.

Syrian opposition, however, opposes the idea of an international peacekeeping mission, saying it would only delay the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.