Agencies
Syrian president Bashar Assad
DOHA/TRIPOLI/NICOSIA: No news emerged from Doha Monday on a Syrian response to an Arab plan to end Syria’s eight-month crisis. Despite a meeting between Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Doha Monday, it remained unclear whether Moallem had delivered President Bashar Assad’s response to the Arab League plan.
Arab diplomats said the plan, put to Moallem in Qatar Sunday, included the immediate release of prisoners held since February, a withdrawal of security forces, deployment of Arab League monitors and the launch of a dialogue.
The Syrian government has so far insisted that any dialogue must take place inside Syria rather than at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
The opposition says putting an end to all forms of violence is a prerequisite to holding any such dialogue.
Opposition figures have repeatedly said that Assad’s offers of dialogue were not serious, and reported a rise in mass arrests, torture, disappearances and assassinations of activists and protest leaders in recent weeks.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces had shot dead four civilians and an army deserter in separate incidents in central Syria Monday.
The rights group said two people, including a 29-year-old man, were killed by snipers in the city of Homs, a flashpoint in anti-government protests which have swept the country since mid-March.
In Hama, Syrian security forces and soldiers in pursuit killed a civilian and a deserter, said the Britain-based group in a statement received in Nicosia.
It said a fourth civilian was shot dead in Harasta, a town near Damascus, as security forces carried out raids and made at least 13 arrests.
A mostly Sunni Muslim country of 20 million, Syria is ruled by members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, who also dominate the military, key sectors of the economy as well as a pervasive security apparatus.
Homs province, which borders Lebanon and is home to one of Syria’s two oil refineries, is emerging as a center of armed resistance to Assad after months of mainly peaceful protests that have often drawn a violent response from security forces.
Assad has made a number of changes following the breakout of the unrest seven months ago, but his reform program has so far failed to address the opposition’s grievances as his opponents insist he should start the reforms by stepping down.
A committee set up by Assad two weeks ago to draft a new constitution met for the first time on Monday, the state news agency SANA said. The committee has until mid-February to propose the new constitution.
Meanwhile, NATO ruled out military intervention in Syria Monday but said Damascus should draw lessons from Libya, where NATO-backed rebels won a civil war that resulted in the killing of long-serving leader Moammar Gadhafi. Western powers have been tightening sanctions on Syria but have shown no appetite for repeating their Libyan campaign in the Middle Eastern nation where protesters have demanded external protection from a crackdown that has killed 3,000 people.
Speaking during a visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said military action in Syria was out of the question. “My answer is very short. NATO has no intention [to intervene] whatsoever. I can completely rule that out,” he told reporters.
“Having said that, I strongly condemn the crackdown on the civilian population in Syria. What has happened in Libya sends a clear signal. You cannot neglect the will of the people.
“You should accommodate the legitimate aspirations of your people and work towards democracy,” Rasmussen added.
Anti-Assad protesters called Friday for international protection, with explicit calls for a no-fly zone, mainly in demonstrations in Homs.
Opposition activists claim Syrian warplanes have been flying over Homs and other areas, a charge denied by the Syrian government.
Assad warned the West over the weekend that meddling in its affairs would cause an “earthquake” in the Middle East where his country borders Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Nov-01/152759-arabs-reveal-plan-syria-silent.ashx#ixzz1cPY5seIn
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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