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Up to 300 unarmed observers will go into conflict area for 3 months The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Saturday that authorizes an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria for three months to monitor a fragile week-old cease-fire between the military and opposition. It's the first time the council has authorized unarmed UN military observers to go into a conflict area. Saturday's resolution gave UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon the final say on when to deploy them, based on his assessment of the situation. The Security Council said it "decided to establish an initial period of 90 days a United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria under the commander of a Chief Military Observer, comprising an initial deployment of up to 300 unarmed military observers as well as an appropriate civilian component as required by the mission to fulfill its mandate". Explaining China's vote and its co-sponsorship of the resolution, the Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN, Li Baodong, said the country always supports and is "actively committed to promoting the just, peaceful and proper settlement of the Syrian crisis through political dialogue" Vitaly Churkin, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, told the council that the resolution is "of fundamental importance to push forward the peace process in Syria". Russia and China, two of the five permanent members on the 15-nation council who vetoed two resolutions on Syria in October and in February, said they supported resolving the Syrian crisis through international dialogue instead of "regime change". | 
