Arab countries were meeting in Cairo on Sunday in a renewed push to end Syria’s bloody 11-month crackdown on dissent, as fighting escalated, even spilling over into Lebanon. Gulf Arab states that have spearheaded regional condemnation of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime held talks in the Egyptian capital before a meeting of an Arab League committee on the crisis. As the talks began, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported army shelling killed at least four civilians in the central protest city of Homs, including three in the rebel stronghold of Baba Amr. The Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that another 30 tanks and armed personnel carriers were on the way to Homs, which armed forces have pounded for more than week, killing at least 500 people, according to activists.
On the eve of the talks, the Syrian National Council (SNC) said Arab recognition of the opposition umbrella group was imminent. So far only post-revolt Libya recognises the SNC as its sole Syrian interlocutor. Arab League foreign ministers were also expected to consider proposals for an observer mission, withdrawn last month because of an upsurge in violence, to be returned with UN reinforcement.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon broached the idea this month as he bemoaned the Security Council’s failure to agree a resolution on the crisis in the face of Chinese and Russian opposition.
The 22-member League has put forward a plan for Assad to hand over power to his deputy and for the formation of a government of national unity ahead of elections. The Gulf monarchies have already ordered their envoys home from Syria and expelled Damascus’s ambassadors, joining mounting pressure on Assad over the killings of civilians. On Sunday, Syrian government newspaper Ath-Thawra accused the Arab nations of being in the pay of Western powers.
“There will probably be no surprises because the orders have already been sent. They do not decide anything; they just carry out orders. They have done that in the past and they will do it today,” it said referring to the Cairo meetings.
State television aired live footage Sunday of an official funeral for the 28 people it says were killed in twin car bombs that ripped through the northern city of Aleppo on Friday. The Syrian authorities blamed “terrorists” for the attacks, but the rebel Free Syrian Army accused the regime of launching them “to steer attention away from what it is doing in Homs, Zabadani and elsewhere.” A US media report citing unnamed American officials said Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi branch was likely to have carried out the Aleppo bombings, along with attacks on Damascus in December and January. The attacks appeared to verify Assad’s charges of Al-Qaeda involvement in the uprising against his 11-year rule, said the McClatchy Newspapers chain.
Syria observer chief resigns: Arab official
The controversial head of Arab League observers to Syria resigned on Sunday, an official said, as the bloc met to decide on reviving the mission jointly with the United Nations, in the latest bid to end bloodshed. Sudanese General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi was due to officially hand in his resignation at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo later in the day, an Arab League official told AFP. General Dabi served under Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges connected with the nine-year-old conflict in Darfur. He sparked outrage when he said that he was satisfied with the observer mission to Syria, even though it failed to halt President Bashar al-Assad’s bloody 11-month crackdown on dissent.