Clinton: With more defections, Syrian regime's 'days are numbered'

(CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday "the days are numbered" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"There is doubt that the opposition is getting more effective their defense of themselves and in going the offense against the Syrian military and the Syrian government's militias," Clinton said a press conference in Tokyo on Sunday.

And a recent increase in defections from the al-Assad regime, "the sand is running out of the hourglass," Clinton said.

"The sooner there can be an to the violence and a beginning of political transition process, not will fewer people die, there's a chance to save the Syrian state a catastrophic assault that would be very dangerous not to Syria but the region," she said.

Clinton, speaking a Tokyo conference on Afghanistan, acknowledged a peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan has far failed to stymie the bloodbath in Syria that has continued 16 months.

That violence raged again Sunday, when at least 30 people killed across the country, said the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network opposition activists.

the escalating chaos in Syria that led to the suspension of monitoring activities, the United Nations can continue to play a role in the embattled country, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a report to presented to the Security Council.

An advance copy of the report, is circulating among Security Council members, was obtained by CNN of a Wednesday briefing on Syria to the council by Annan. The special envoy expected to visit Damascus Monday, a Syrian foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The document admits the efforts implement Annan's peace plan -- includes a cease- and take measures to protect human rights -- not worked.

some places, the levels of violence are higher today than they were before initial cease-fire attempt, the report says.

The 300-strong U.N. team in Syria, mission is to observe and help implement the plan, has unable to do its work as envisioned of the current conditions, the document states.

Last month, the United Nations announced that it was back its unarmed monitors because escalating violence. Opposition groups slammed the international body the suspension of its work.

Ban essentially three options on the table are: withdrawing the U.N. team; increasing its size or adding armed protection them; or retooling the mission of current team.

Ban elaborates the most the idea to shift the strategy of the current U.N. team.

The team could retain military observer capability and continue its fact-finding work, but a limited scope in of the violence in Syria, the report says.

In this scenario, the U.N. mission would move its personnel the field back to Damascus, where it would focus on pushing the six-point plan to the Syrian government and opposition.

" a central hub in Damascus, the civilian component would continue liaison and dialogue opposition and Government representatives in the provinces security conditions allow," Ban writes.


Adapted and abridged from: CNN, July 8, 2012.