Arab ministers give Syria mission green light to continue

Arab ministers meeting yesterday in Cairo gave a widely criticised observer mission to Syria the green light to continue and called for an immediate end to the violence there.

The Arab ministerial committee on Syria “has decided to give Arab League observers the necessary time to continue their mission according to the protocol,” which states that the mission is for the duration of one month.

The ministers agreed to increase the number of observers, which currently stands at 163, and said they may seek “technical assistance from the United Nations.”

Arab ministers were in Cairo to review the observer mission’s record, amid growing calls for the bloc to cede to the United Nations the lead role in trying to end nearly 10 months of bloodshed.

In its final statement, the committee said it “calls on the Syrian government and all armed groups to immediately stop all acts of violence.”

The meeting, chaired by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, was briefed by the head of the mission General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi.

A team of Arab League monitors has been in Syria since December 26, trying to assess whether President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is complying with a peace accord aimed at ending its deadly crackdown on dissent.

Critics say it has been completely outmanoeuvred by the government and has failed to make any progress towards stemming the crackdown. They have called for the mission to pull out.

General al-Dabi – a Sudanese former military intelligence chief who is himself the focus of controversy – said it was too early to judge the mission.

“This is the first time that the Arab League has carried out such a mission,” he told Britain’s Observer newspaper. “But it has only just started, so I have not had enough time to form a view.”

The Arab League has admitted to “mistakes” but defended the mission, saying it had secured the release of prisoners and withdrawal of tanks from cities.

It said rather than pull out; it planned to send more observers. “No plan to withdraw the observers is on the agenda of the Arab ministerial committee meeting on Syria,” the bloc’s deputy secretary general, Adnan Issa, told AFP on Saturday.

“We are not talking about a pullout but reinforcing the mission.” Yesterday’s meeting came amid further violence in Syria, in which at least 10 civilians were killed by security forces and 11 soldiers died in clashes with deserters, human rights activists said.

Syrian security forces and pro-regime militias shot and killed 10 civilians in different parts of the country.