Arab League awaits Syria’s answer on demand over tanks withdrawal
PHOTO | AFP
Lebanese security forces stand guard in front of a banner showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to separate his supporters from a counter-protest against the Syrian government’s crackdown on anti-regime protests across Syria, outside the Syrian embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
What you need to know:
- The entire region is at risk of a massive storm, Qatari Foreign Minister says after overnight talks
DOHA, Monday
A proposed Arab League plan to end months of bloodshed in Syria includes a demand to remove tanks from the streets, the pan-Arab group said at it awaited today a response from Damascus to its suggested roadmap for peace.
“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,” Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi told AFP in the Qatari capital Doha.
The Arab League was today awaiting a response from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to its plan which, Arabi said, also calls for a dialogue to take place in Cairo between Syrian regime officials and opposition figures.
Arab foreign ministers met overnight their Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Doha for talks amid growing fears among regional leaders that unchecked Syrian bloodshed could further inflame the Arab world.
The region is already 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 Mr 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.
“What is required of Syria... are concrete steps that could avoid what happened to other countries,” he said, in an apparent reference to Nato’s military intervention in the popular uprising in Libya. (AFP)
