Arab League Team Arrives in Syria After Accord on Monitoring
December 22, 2011, 11:35 PM ESTBy Massoud A. Derhally
(Updates with team’s arrival in first, second paragraphs.)
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- An Arab League mission arrived in Syria today to prepare for monitoring of the accord the government signed this week to end nine months of violence, as the deadly crackdown on protests continued.
The team that touched down today included the Arab League’s assistant secretary-general, Samir Seif Al-Yazal, according to a report by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. The League has been given assurances that its observers will be able to travel freely, communicating with whomever they want without prior approval from Syrian authorities, Dubai-based Al Arabiya television reported.
Syria agreed this week to an Arab League protocol to allow about 500 observers into the country. The Dec. 19 signing came as the Arab League prepared to ask the United Nations to address the crisis that has left more than 5,000 people dead, according to UN estimates. Al Arabiya, citing opposition activists, reported that 23 people were killed today by security forces while 70 others were killed in Syria yesterday.
The Arab League imposed sanctions on Syria on Nov. 27, increasing economic and political pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. Efforts by the U.S. and Europe, which have also imposed sanctions, to get a condemnation of President Bashar al- Assad’s crackdown at the Security Council have been blocked by Russia and China.
‘Safe Zones’
The Syrian National Council, an opposition alliance seeking to topple Assad’s government, yesterday called for a Security Council meeting to address alleged “massacres” and “large- scale genocide.”
State forces have killed 250 people in the past 48 hours in the regions of Idlib, Homs and al-Zawiyah, the council said. The regions should be declared “safe zones,” it said. Reports of the latest killings couldn’t be verified as the Syrian government restricts foreign media access in the country and places curbs on local journalists.
In a statement today, the Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned “the Syrian regime’s policy of crackdown that targets its own people and turns the country into a bloodbath.”
--With assistance from Emre Peker in Ankara and Nadeem Hamid in Washington. Editors: Digby Lidstone, Karl Maier
To contact the reporter on this story: Massoud A. Derhally in Beirut, Lebanon at mderhally@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net
