* U.N. men, hardware move into Syria
* Mission will seek maximum scope, freedom to move
* Syria likely to make their life difficult
* Truce monitors may be thin end of U.N. wedge
By Douglas Hamilton
BEIRUT, April 19 (Reuters) – Four military transport planes
flew over the Mediterranean into Beirut this week from bases in
Brindisi and Prague, carrying the first hardware for a U.N.
peacekeeping mission in Syria whose ultimate outcome is
unforeseeable.
How and when the operation might end is a question the world
body may have to grapple with for some time.
The planes’ cargo of 10 4x4s in the white paintwork of the
United Nations, familiar on former battlefields the world over,
was destined for an unarmed contingent of 30 ceasefire monitors
which will expand over the coming weeks to 300 observers.
From Beirut, it is a 90-minute drive over the mountains into
Lebanon’s green Bekaa Valley and on by road to Damascus, a name
redolent of fiery Arab nationalism and now the prize in a
revolution impossible to predict.
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