League move ‘only buying time’ for Assad regime

ARAB League monitors are only giving Syrian authorities more time to crack down on opponents, opposition figures said after the League opted to keep the mission in place despite Syria’s failure to comply fully with an Arab peace plan.

The observers, whose mission began two weeks ago, have so far failed to stop a violent crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the past 10 months.

After a meeting in Cairo to review progress, the Arab League said the government had only partly implemented a pledge to stop the repression, free detainees and withdraw troops from cities.