Turkey accuses UN Security Council of indirectly supporting the oppression of the Syrian people

The United Nations Security Council has been accused by Turkey PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan of indirectly supporting the oppression of the Syrian people by failing to unite on Syria.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the UN Security Council was standing by with its “hands and arms tied” while the Syrian people were dying every day.

Russia says Syria has promised to pull its forces from cities by 10 April.

In Damascus, the head of Red Cross has been meeting top Syrian officials.

Jakob Kellenberger has been trying to get Syria to allow aid workers better access to those who have been wounded or displaced by the conflict.

He will also press the Syrian authorities to implement a daily two-hour ceasefire, as stipulated in the peace plan proposed by the UN and Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan.

The president of the UN General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, says he has asked Kofi Annan to brief the world body on his Syria peace mission.

No date has been set, but Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser said he had suggested 13 April, after the 10 April deadline for the military pullback and a mutual ceasefire has passed, our correspondent adds.

Russia’s foreign ministry says Syria’s government has informed Moscow it has started implementing Kofi Annan’s plan to end the unrest.

The ministry said in a statement that the Syrian ambassador to Moscow told Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov that Damascus had begun fulfilling its obligations under the plan, the Associated Press news agency reports.

The statement did not give any further details.

Kofi Annan’s spokesman, Ahmed Fawzi, said on Tuesday that an advance team from the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) would arrive in Damascus “in the next 48 hours” to discuss the deployment of international monitors.

The team would be made up of five to six people, he added.

The announcement comes the day after Kofi Annan urged the UN Security Council to set a deadline of 10 April for a ceasefire plan to come into force.

Syria says it has agreed to the deadline.

But activists say government forces have continued to attack opposition strongholds.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said by not taking a decision on Syria, the UN Security Council had “indirectly supported the oppression. To stand by with your hands and arms tied while the Syrian people are dying every day is to support the oppression”.

He told members of parliament from his governing AK Party that Turkey would not turn its back on the Syrian people.

China and Russia have twice vetoed resolutions condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for turning the army on civilians.

On Monday, Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council that President Assad had agreed to withdraw security forces from major population centres by 10 April, diplomats said.

Kofi Annan also asked the Security Council to plan for the deployment of UN observers to supervise the ceasefire by all parties, as set out in his peace plan.

UN officials and diplomats said the monitors would probably be drawn from other peacekeeping forces in the region and could not be established without an end to the fighting, agreement by all parties and a Security Council mandate.

The ceasefire is only one part of Kofi Annan’s peace plan, which also calls for a political process to address the “aspirations” of the Syrian people, release of detainees, delivery of humanitarian aid, free movement for journalists, and right to protest.