Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement that the organization decided to halt the observers’ work immediately because of the increasing violence, until the League’s council can meet to decide the mission’s fate. He sharply criticized Damascus for the spike in bloodshed, saying the regime has “resorted to escalating the military option in complete violation of (its) commitments” to end the crackdown, Elaraby said.
By BASSEM MROUE and AYA BATRAWY
Associated Press
BEIRUT — The Arab League halted its observer mission in Syria on Saturday because of escalating violence that killed nearly 100 people in the past three days, as pro-Assad forces battled dissident soldiers in a belt of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus in the most intense fighting yet so close to the capital.
The rising bloodshed has added urgency to new attempts by Arab and Western countries to find a resolution to the 10 months of violence that according to the United Nations has killed at least 5,400 people as Assad seeks to crush protests demanding an end to his rule.
The United Nations is holding talks on a new resolution on Syria and this week will discuss an Arab peace plan aimed at ending the crisis. But the initiatives face two major obstacles: Damascus’ rejection of an Arab peace plan which it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia’s willingness to use its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.
Syria’s Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar vowed the crackdown would go on, telling families of security members killed in the past months that security forces “will continue their struggle to clean Syria’s soil of the outlaws.”
The month-old Arab League observer mission in Syria had come under widespread criticism for failing to bring a halt to the regime’s crackdown.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement that the organization decided to halt the observers’ work immediately because of the increasing violence, until the League’s council can meet to decide the mission’s fate. He sharply criticized Damascus for the spike in bloodshed, saying the regime has “resorted to escalating the military option in complete violation of (its) commitments” to end the crackdown, Elaraby said.