Syria regime accepts Arab peace plan

SYRIA last night fully accepted an Arab League plan to end nearly eight months of bloodshed, a League official said, although the UN chief warned that the regime still has to implement the deal as agreed.

The agreement announced at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo came amid huge pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, even from traditional allies such as China, to end weeks of prevarication and sign up to the deal drawn up by the pan-Arab bloc.

“The Syrian delegation accepted the Arab League plan without reservations and in its entirety,” the official said.

The peace plan agreed to by Syria provides for a “complete halt to the violence to protect civilians.”

More than 3,000 people have died in the government’s bloody crackdown on the unprecedented protests against Assad’s rule, which broke out in mid-March, according to UN figures.

The blueprint also calls for the “release of people detained as a result of the recent events, the withdrawal of forces from towns and districts where there have been armed clashes, and the granting of access to the Arab League, and Arab and international media.”

It stipulates that “the Arab ministerial committee [headed by the prime minister of Qatar] will conduct consultations with the government and the various Syrian opposition parties aimed at launching a national dialogue”.

However, the text does not specify a venue for the dialogue, a bone of contention between the government, which insists on Damascus, and the opposition, which says it should be outside Syria.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon said it was vital that Assad’s regime now swiftly implement the agreement in full.

“He must implement the agreement as soon as possible as agreed,” Ban told a news conference in Tripoli on his first visit to Libya since the eruption in February of the conflict which toppled veteran tyrant, Muammar Gadaffi.

“People have suffered too much for too long and it’s an unacceptable situation,” the UN chief said.

“Killing civilians must stop immediately in Syria,” he added.