Arab bloc seeks joint UN force for Syria
According to a draft resolution to be adopted by Arab League foreign ministers who met in Cairo yesterday, the 22-member group will also call for an immediate ceasefire.
It demands that regime forces lift the siege on neighbourhoods and villages and pull troops and their heavy weapons back to their barracks. Syria is unlikely to accept a joint UN-Arab League peacekeeping force.
The draft also calls on Syrian opposition groups to unite ahead of a Feb 24 meeting of the “Friends of Syria” group, which includes the US, its European allies and Arab nations working to end the 11-month-old conflict.
The Sudanese head of the Arab League observer mission to Syria resigned yesterday, hours before foreign ministers began to consider a proposal to send a new mission to the country including UN monitors, according to officials. The group was also considering a proposal to expel Syrian ambassadors from Arab capitals.
At the same time, al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri threw the terror network’s support behind Syrian rebels trying to topple President Bashar Assad, raising fears that Islamic extremists are exploiting the uprising that began peacefully but is quickly transforming into an armed insurgency. The regime has long blamed terrorists for the revolt, and al-Qaida’s endorsement creates new difficulties for Western and Arab states trying to figure out a way to help force Assad out of power.
The Arab League has been at the forefront of regional efforts to end violence. The group put forward a plan that Assad agreed to in December, then sent in monitors to check whether the Syrian regime was complying. But when it became clear that Assad’s regime was flouting the terms of the agreement and killings went on, the League pulled the observers out last month.
The League officials said the group would also call on Syrian opposition groups to close ranks and unite under one umbrella, a move they said would place more pressure on the Assad regime.
Washington piled more pressure on Syria. President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff Jacob Lew said it was only a matter of time before Assad’s regime collapsed.
“The brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable and has to end,” he told Fox News Sunday. The US is pursuing “all avenues that we can” and that “there is no question that this regime will come to an end. The only question is when.”
The Arab League was considering whether to revive the observer mission, expanding it to include monitors from non-Arab, Muslim nations and the UN. However the Syrians would be unlikely to accept a new team.
“The time has come for a decisive action to stop the bloodshed suffered by the Syrian people since the start of last year,” Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told the Arab foreign ministers. “We must move quickly in all directions... to end the cycle of violence in Syria.”
Foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain — are also proposing the expulsion of ambassadors from all Arab League nations. The GCC ministers also proposed Arab nations withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus, according to the officials.
The six nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been campaigning for a tougher stand against Assad’s regime and may offer formal recognition of the National Syrian Council.
Assad’s regime has pursued a harsh crackdown against the uprising since it began in March. The UN estimates that 5,400 people have been killed, but that figure is from January, when the world body stopped counting because the chaos in Syria has made it all but impossible to check figures. Hundreds are reported to have been killed since.
Arab League officials said the Elaraby has accepted the resignation of Gen Mohammed Ahmed Al-Dabi, the head of the Syrian observer mission, and nominated former Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul-Illah al-Khatib as the new envoy.
A decision on al-Khatib’s nomination would be made later in the day by Arab foreign ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital.
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