An advance team of Arab observers will head to Damascus on Thursday to set the ground for monitors overseeing a deal to end months of bloodshed, the Arab League said on Tuesday. “An advance team headed by Arab League Assistant Secretary General Samir Seif al-Yazal will head to Damascus on Thursday,” League Assistant Secretary General Ahmed Bin Helli told reporters.
Syria faces demands for action after observer deal: Gulf Arab states on Tuesday urged Syria’s government to immediately halt its “killing machine” as a first step towards implementing an Arab peace deal. The Gulf Cooperation Council called on Syria to “immediately halt its killing machine, put an end to bloodshed, lift all signs of armed conflict and release prisoners, as a first step towards implementing the (Arab) protocol” that Damascus agreed to on Monday.
Syria also faced Western demands to rein in its security forces Tuesday after they killed 40 civilians and scores of army deserters, according to activists, the very day it agreed to Arab observers, while clashes on Tuesday between Syrian loyalist troops and army deserters killed and wounded at least 100 mutinous soldiers. The clashes took place in the northwest Idlib province bordering Turkey, scene of deadly fighting the previous day.
After clashes that broke out this morning with the regular army, 100 deserters were besieged then killed or wounded between the villages of Kafruwed and Al-Fatira. Monday’s deal with the Arab League came after weeks of prevarication and failed to convince either the opposition or Western governments which have been pushing for tough UN action to punish the regime’s deadly protest crackdown.
The opposition Syrian National Council charged that Damascus’s acceptance of the observer mission intended to oversee implementation of a plan to end nine months of bloodshed was merely a “ploy” to head off a threat by the pan-Arab bloc to go to the UN Security Council.
Western delegations said the observer deal would be taken into account in discussions under way in the council on a draft resolution on the crisis but said Syria would be judged by its actions and not by its words.
“It’s all about implementation,” said Britain’s UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses during the crackdown which the world body has left more than 5,000 people dead. The Arab League said an advance team of observers from Arab countries would head to Damascus within 72 hours, and the mission would last for a renewable initial period of a month.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem pledged his government’s full cooperation with the observer mission and expressed hope the bloc would lift sweeping sanctions it imposed on November 27 after an ultimatum to admit the team was not honoured.
“Signing the protocol is the start of cooperation with the Arab League and we will welcome the observers’ mission from the Arab League,” said Muallem, adding the League agreed to 70 percent of changes sought by Damascus.
Syria blames the unrest on “armed terrorist groups” – not peaceful protesters as maintained by Western powers and rights groups – and its foreign minister said on Monday that he expected the observer mission to vindicate that position.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has signed into effect a law imposing the death penalty on anyone arming “terrorists”, state media said on Tuesday amid mounting clashes with rebel troops.
“The law provides for the death penalty for anyone providing weapons or helping to provide weapons intended for the carrying out of terrorist acts,” announced the official SANA news agency.
