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S/PV.6710 12-21919 7 Our objective is therefore for the Security Council to support our initiative, not to take its place. The Arab plan is the fundamental mechanism for a peaceful settlement of the Syrian crisis, with international support and agreement from the Security Council. In our approach to the Syrian crisis, we have taken up two fundamental pillars. One is immediate action for an immediate, full cessation of all acts of violence against and killing of the Syrian people, while at the same time maintaining the right of the Syrian people to expression by peaceful demonstration and for the Syrian security forces not to confront the demonstrations. The second pillar is a road map leading to a peaceful political settlement of the crisis through a national dialogue that includes all parties, all sects, all political currents and all segments of Syrian society in order to realize the aspirations of the Syrian people for a life of true democracy. In fulfilling that endeavour, since July 2011 the League has taken several actions and has put a number of initiatives to the Syrian leadership. The most important was on 27 August. Mandated by the Council of the League, I personally handed it to the Syrian leadership on 10 September last year. Thereafter, an Arab ministerial committee — again, mandated by the Council of the League and chaired by the Prime Minister of Qatar — visited Damascus and met with the Syrian leadership on 26 October. Based on that initiative and those contacts, the Arab action plan took shape. The Syrian Government promised to implement it, and it was then adopted by the Council of the Arab League on 2 November. The plan includes: “First, the Syrian Government is to put an end to all acts of violence, from whatever source, to protect the Syrian citizens; second, the release of those detained during, and because of, the current events; three, withdrawal of all armed elements from all cities and urban centres; and four, opening the door to all institutions of the League as well as Arab and international media to move freely in Syria in order to ascertain facts on the ground and monitor such events. “Secondly, with concrete progress in the Syrian Government’s implementation of its commitments, the Arab Ministerial Committee on Syria would make the necessary contacts and hold the necessary consultations with the Government and all parties of the Syrian opposition in order to hold a national dialogue within two weeks of that date.” In order to verify the Syrian Government’s implementation of its commitments under the action plan, on 19 December 2011 the Arab League drew up a protocol establishing the legal context for the observer mission. Observers from all Arab States and relevant institutions were deployed beginning on 24 December 2011. The mission continued to deploy to all areas where demonstrations were occurring in 15 cities in Syria. The head of the mission presented his first technical field report covering the period from 24 December 2011, the date on which the team reached Damascus, to 18 January of this year. The report was transmitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 22 January in order to inform him of the situation on the ground and the cooperation and consultations between our two organizations. The Council of the League of Arab States decided that, in the light of the conclusions presented in the report, partial progress had indeed been made in implementing some of the commitments undertaken by the Syrian Government. However, progress was incomplete and therefore insufficient. It was not what was required or, indeed, what was wanted. The resolutions of the League and the protocol itself refer to the immediate and complete cessation of acts of violence, the release of all detainees, the withdrawal of all armed elements from cities and the provision of unhindered access to Arab and international media. In that context, I should like to take up some fundamental points presented in the report in order to provide the appropriate temporal and political context. First, the Syrian Government should have met all of its commitments before the monitors arrived, so that the mission would merely verify implementation. However, since it did not fully meet all its commitments, the task of the team on the ground had to change. The team sought to demand that the Syrian Government immediately and fully implement its commitments. It also sought to confront some painful humanitarian situations that could not be ignored, even though they exceeded the scope of the team’s mandate. By way of example, the team delivered food to som