As fighting intensified in Syria, and with international diplomacy at a near standstill, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a 30-day extension to a monitoring mission on Friday.

The vote allows the 300 unarmed military observers to began a transition to a mission shutdown. They have been been deployed as part of U.N. envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan to end the 16-month conflict that has killed thousands, but the force has been viewed as largely ineffective.

Susan Rice said a decision was made to extend the mission for a final period of 30 days to allow it to withdraw safely — in an orderly fashion. She said the hope is that the withdrawal will be conducted with the “principal priority placed on the security of U.N. personnel.”

SUSAN RICE SOUND BITES: “The decision we took was to extend the UNSMIS's mission for a final period of 30 days to allow it to withdraw safely and orderly — in an orderly fashion. and we hope very much that the withdrawal will be conducted with the principal priority placed on the security of U.N. personnel.”

“Today's vote to extend UNSMIS for a final period was not the resolution that the United States had hoped to adopt in the first instance. Our strong preference was to adopt the resolution that was regrettably vetoed yesterday in order to give the men and women of UNSMIS a final last, best opportunity to succeed in the performance of their mission.”