GENEVA, (SANA)_ Martin Nesirky, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman declared that there was a fear that a third force or element was "at play in Syria and that this undoubtedly complicates the task for the monitors and the international community in seeking to ensure that the six-point plan is fully implemented,''

Reuters quoted Nesirky as telling reporters in New York yesterday that "There's no hard evidence on specific groups," pointing out that ''some of the attacks that have been seen are of the kind and nature that suggests that there is behind them a force or element with the organizational capacity and political intent to carry out violence on that scale.''

Nesirky asserted the importance of 'direct talks with the Syrian authorities and the Syrian opposition' which 'is done in different ways at different times and it is coming to the time when it's appropriate for the joint special envoy to engage directly and personally with the Syrian authorities and with the opposition.''

UN Secretary General Ki-moon earlier expressed his belief that al Qaeda was responsible for the two suicide booby-trapped car bombs that killed or wounded hundreds of innocent Syrian citizens.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, in a press conference in Damascus last Monday, said: "I have learned that there is a third party which doesn't commit to the Syrian people's track because it is adhered to special agendas.. so we have to keep our eyes open and know that there are terrorist attacks and explosions.''

In reply to a question about the UN way to deal with Qatar and Saudi Arabia which talked frankly about supplying the opposition with weapons, Ladsous concluded "the UN said as from the beginning that any arming for the crisis in Syria would not be acceptable because the crisis is among the Syrians and there is no justification to inflame the situation with weapon and money.. I believe that the Syrians themselves are responsible for solving this crisis.''

Al-Ibrahim