Americas

Americas

Obama, Merkel call for more resolute UN action on Syria

12 April 2012 03:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that the UN Security Council needs to take "more resolute action" on Syria, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"On Syria, the President and Chancellor shared the concern that the Assad government was not complying with the terms of the agreement negotiated by Kofi Annan and continued to engage in unacceptable brutality against its own people," said the statement.

"They agreed that this underscored the need for the UN Security Council to come together to take more resolute action," the statement said.

The two also discussed the Iranian nuclear issue, urging Iran to take advantage of the upcoming nuclear talks with the six world powers in order to address the international concerns about Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

They reiterated their determination to increase the pressure on Iran through sanctions and other measures if it remained "unresponsive," said the statement.

Obama also looked forward to hosting Merkel for the G8 Summit which is due to be held at Camp David in Maryland next month, said the statement.

According to the peace plan proposed by UN-Arab League joint special envoy Kofi Annan, the deadline for a ceasefire in Syria is set for Thursday.

Annan said Wednesday that he had been informed by the Syrian government that the cease of all military fighting across Syria will go into effect as of 6 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) on Thursday, according to Annan’s spokesman Ahamd Fawzi.