The Syrian opposition lobbies for intervention by the UN

Opposition Syrian National Council leaders yesterday pressed the Arab League to turn the Syria crisis over to the UN, but the League looked set to extend its own mission, criticised for its failure to stem 10 months of killing.

The Arab League is expected to extend its mission

SNC chief Burhan Ghaliun met Arab League head Nabil al-Arabi in Cairo and lobbied against the extension of the League’s peace mission, SNC spokeswoman Basma Qadmani said.

The SNC wants “the transfer of the Syria file to the UN Security Council,” spokesman Mohammed Sermini told AFP in Cairo earlier, accusing the Damascus regime of “committing genocide and crimes against humanity”.

But the Arab League is expected to extend its mission, even boosting the number of observers deployed, after foreign ministers hear a report on the mission’s first month of work today.

The report will be delivered by the mission’s chief, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan, who believes his mandate needs to be strengthened, not scrapped, a League official said.

Deputy chief of operations, Ali Jarush, said Dabi is satisfied with the achievements of the operation so far and that “everything indicates that the observer mission in Syria will be extended by a month.”

“Dabi sees that in the last phase the necessary thrust (of the operation) was achieved after more monitors were deployed and fanned across 20 areas and after they were provided with equipment and logistics which they previously lacked, he said.