ALGERIA’S FOREIGN minister Mourad Medelci has said that Damascus has reached an agreement with an Arab League committee on a proposal to end violence in Syria.
The plan calls for the withdrawal of troops and tanks from cities and towns, release of prisoners held since unrest began in mid-March, deployment of league monitors and dialogue between the government and opposition.
Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country is spearheading the league effort, said Syrian president Bashar al-Assad must also implement serious reforms.
Ahead of the league’s ministerial meeting today in Cairo, Mr Assad said he was willing to talk to the opposition. “We will co-operate with all political powers, both those who had existed before the crisis and those who arose during it. We believe interacting with these powers is extremely important.”
It is not clear, however, if the league will find opposition factions prepared to hold talks with the government. While some are ready for dialogue once violence is halted and prisoners are freed, others flatly reject talks.
Ausama Monajed of the Syrian National Council, an umbrella grouping of secular factions and the Muslim Brotherhood, said: “There can be no negotiations. Negotiations are a red line for us.”
He revealed that the council was seeking to persuade army defectors who have joined the “Free Syrian Army” to co-ordinate resistance activities with the council and to defend civilians from attack rather than strike against the Syrian army and security forces.
He said the council insisted “that this uprising will remain peaceful” and not initiate sectarian or civil war.
Complicating the picture, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reiterated support for the opposition. While Ankara has permitted defecting army commanders and troops to base themselves on Turkish territory and carry out operations inside Syria, Nato has ruled out military intervention.
Commentators argue that the situation remains deadlocked with the government unable to halt protests and the protesters unable to topple the regime.
Meanwhile, the committee appointed by the government to draft a new constitution has met twice this week with the aim of completing its task within three months.
Syrian troops have been laying land mines along the country’s 320km border with Lebanon. An unidentified Syrian official said the mines were meant to stop arms smuggling while opposition spokesmen say they were intended to halt the flow of refugees into Lebanon. Many Syrians routinely cross into Lebanon along well-established routes to visit relatives, find employment or smuggle fuel and other commodities.
The arms trade has ballooned sine unrest began.
Some 5,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon and 10,000-15,000 to Turkey during the last seven months. Human rights organisations say 3,000 civilians have been killed. The government says hundreds of soldiers have died in attacks by army deserters and “armed gangs”.
