Arab League says monitors will remain in Syria

ARAB LEAGUE foreign ministers yesterday ruled out any withdrawal of the organisation’s monitors deployed in Syria with the aim of ending violence, securing the release of political prisoners and launching dialogue between government and opposition.

The league urged “the Syrian government and various armed groups to immediately halt all forms of violence” and called on anti-regime groups “to return to protesting peacefully”.

League deputy chief Adnan al-Eissa stated, “No Arab country has talked about the necessity of withdrawing the monitors.” Instead, he observed that Arab governments favoured expanding the 163-man mission.

The Qatari-led league committee dealing with the Syrian crisis heard the mission’s preliminary report, which cites continued violations by the Syrian regime of the league’s peace plan, signed by Damascus last month.

Mission head Lieut Gen Mustafa al-Dabi said the monitors are “at the start” of a lengthy effort and are receiving “enough” co-operation. He reported that Syria has pulled troops and armour out of urban areas and released 4,000 of 14,000 detainees but said that regime snipers continue to operate in restive areas. He is set to submit a formal report on January 19th.

Last week, Syria also partially complied with the league demand that it admit foreign journalists to report events on the ground.

Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al- Thani said the ministers rejected a call for UN experts to join the mission but said they might train league monitors before they enter Syria.

League deliberations coincided with the arrival of a Russian naval flotilla, led by an aircraft carrier, at the port of Tartous for a six-day visit regarded by Damascus as a display of “friendship” for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The flotilla suggests Moscow is prepared to resist western intervention in the unrest. The official news agency Sana reported that the commanders of the ships had expressed “their solidarity with the Syrian people”.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the deaths of 11 soldiers in an attack by army deserters in Deraa, and the killing of 10 civilians by snipers and troops raiding homes in Homs and elsewhere.

On Saturday, thousands of government supporters attended the funerals of the 26 people slain on Friday by a suicide bomber in the Maidan quarter in Damascus.