The Arab League on Monday revealed that its proposed roadmap to end violence in Syria includes the withdrawal of tanks from Syrian streets as well as talks in Cairo between the regime and its opponents.
Arab foreign ministers put the proposals to a Syrian delegation led by Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during talks in Doha on Sunday and were now waiting for a response, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told AFP in the Qatari capital.
The talks come amid growing fears among regional leaders that unchecked Syrian bloodshed could further inflame the Arab world, and as NATO categorically ruled out a Libya-style intervention in Syria.
“The Arab proposal to Syria calls for withdrawing tanks and all military vehicles to bring an immediate end to the violence and give assurances to the Syrian street,” said Arabi.
The peace plan also calls for dialogue to take place in Cairo between Syrian regime officials and opposition figures, he added, before leaving Doha Monday afternoon without indicating if a response had been received from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who arrived in Tripoli Monday to mark the end of the alliance’s air war in Libya, ruled out the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Syria.
“It’s totally ruled out. We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” Rasmussen told an AFP correspondent travelling with him.
“We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” he insisted, saying the conditions there were different to those in Libya.
“First of all we took on the responsibility for the operation in Libya because there was a clear UN mandate, because we had strong and active support from the countries in the region,” Rasmussen said.
The region is reeling from unprecedented uprisings that have since January unseated three long-time dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.
Repeating previous warnings, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told reporters that Assad risks forcing an international intervention if he allows the violence to continue. “The entire region is at risk of a massive storm,” Sheikh Hamad told reporters after Sunday’s three-hour meeting. Assad must take “concrete steps” to end the unrest that according to the United Nations has claimed more than 3,000 Syrian lives since March, he said.
