Syria has agreed to extend the Arab League's observer mission for another month, even as a number of Arab nations withdrew their monitors and took their latest plan for ending the country's 10-month opposition uprising to the United Nations.
The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said Tuesday its 55 monitors are leaving the mission to protest Syria's failure to honor pledges to stop the violence. Saudi Arabia was the first GCC member to announce a pullout from the monitoring team on Sunday.
A Syrian activist network, the Local Coordination Committees, said security forces killed at least 60 people Tuesday, mostly in the central city of Homs.
Several U.N. diplomats said France, Britain and Germany are working with Arab nations on a new draft Security Council resolution supporting an Arab League initiative that outlines a transition from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
The league's proposal, which Syria has rejected, requires Mr. Assad to transfer power to a deputy and form a national unity government within two months to prepare for national elections under Arab and international supervision. Both the British and German U.N. envoys have called the plan a “game changer.”
The Arab League said Tuesday its chief, Nabil Elaraby, and Qatar's prime minister sent a joint letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, requesting a meeting to push for Security Council support of the plan. In a separate statement, the six Gulf Arab nations urged the council to take all necessary measures to force Syria to comply with the Arab League proposal.
Meanwhile, in Damascus, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said his counterparts at the 22-member Arab League approved a plan they knew Syria would reject as a violation of its sovereignty, calling it a “plot” to internationalize the crisis. He later sent a letter to the league's secretary-general informing him of Syria's decision to extend the mission.
But Moallem said Syria's key military ally, Russia, would not allow foreign interference in Syrian affairs. Moscow has used its Security Council veto to block Western efforts to punish Syria for trying to crush the uprising against President Assad's 11-year autocratic rule.
Britain, France and the U.S. sharply criticized Russia Tuesday for supplying weapons to Syria, which they said were fueling Mr. Assad's deadly crackdown. Britain's U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, said it is “glaringly obvious” that transferring weapons into a volatile situation is “irresponsible and will only fuel the bloodshed.” Washington's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, said all countries should declare a moratorium on arms sales to Damascus.
The United Nations says violence linked to the uprising has killed more than 5,400 people. Syrian authorities say terrorists have killed about 2,000 security force members since the unrest began.
