SYRIA HAS rejected a surprise Arab League proposal to seek UN Security Council authorisation for the deployment of a joint Arab-UN peacekeeping force in Syria.
Damascus and its allies in Moscow and Beijing had expected a call for the expansion of the organisation’s monitoring mission through the recruitment of Muslim and UN personnel and its resumption of the task of observing implementation of the Arab plan to end violence in Syria.
The monitors were withdrawn last month although their mandate had been extended.
The ministers, meeting in Cairo, decided instead to end the mission and suspend diplomatic contacts with Syrian officials, although a proposal to expel Syrian envoys from Arab capitals was turned down. The Arabs agreed to boost sanctions and offer the opposition political and financial support but not to recognise the western-backed exiled group, the Syrian National Council.
The head of the league’s monitoring mission in Syria, Gen Mustafa al-Dabi fromSudan, resigned, and Abdul Illah al-Khatib, a former Jordanian foreign minister, was nominated for the post of league envoy.
It is unlikely that Russia and China will back the proposal for peacekeepers. On February 4th, the two permanent members vetoed a resolution calling for president Bashar al-Assad to delegate power to his deputy, form a unity government and prepare for multiparty elections.
Ahead of the league meeting, secretary general Nabil al-Arabi received a message from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov expressing Moscow’s support for the reactivation of the league’s monitoring mission. This could become the fall-back position for the league and western powers.
Syrian deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad said on Saturday that the regime would would welcome the renewal of the monitoring mission’s mandate. He observed, however, that the original protocol would have to be amended to include monitoring rebels fighting government forces.
The existing protocol mandated monitors to report on implementation of the November 2nd league plan that calls for a halt to violence on all sides, withdrawal of troops from urban centres, release of prisoners and talks between government and opposition.
Mr Mekdad said the situation had changed since the protocol was signed. “Armed groups now . . . enjoy stocks of modern armaments . . . bombs and mortars.” He condemned the attitude of the outside world that held that the “government is attacking its own people” and argued that this view was not borne out by the situation on the ground.
“He who bets on the collapse of Syria is betting on failure,” said Mr Mekdad, adding that the government would resolve the crisis through reform and dialogue, the route rejected by the opposition.
Meanwhile, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that four civilians had been killed in the central city of Homs and that 30 tanks and armoured personnel carriers have reinforced troops encircling the rebel stronghold of Bab Amr.
However, activists in Homs reported that bombardment had eased and families had been able to leave the district.
On Saturday, Brig Gen Issa al- Kholi, a surgeon in the Tishreen military hospital in Damascus, was assassinated as he left his home.
Diplomatic sources believe that the government is determined to drive rebels from areas under their control, presently Bab Amr and Zabadani, a resort city near the Lebanese border.
In response to the expulsion of envoys, Syria has told Tunisia and Libya to close their missions here.
Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Muslims living in neighbouring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the rebellion against the “pernicious, cancerous regime” in Damascus. His call followed twin attacks by suicide bombers, believed to be al-Qaeda, in the northern city of Aleppo, which killed 28. Reports also surfaced from Iraqi intelligence that al-Qaeda had infiltrated Syria from the Iraqi city of Mosul.
US president Barack Obama’s chief-of-staff Jacob Lew said it was only a matter of time before the regime collapsed. He said the US was pursuing all avenues to this end.
Tunisia has extended an invitation to attend the inaugural meeting of “Friends of Syria” Arab-Western contact group on February 24th. The UN General Assembly is to discuss Syria today.