Syria to Respond to Arab Plan on Tuesday
Syria will respond Tuesday to an Arab League proposal to end violence between regime forces and protesters, an Arab diplomat said, a day before Arab foreign ministers were due to hold talks on the issue.
The Arab League official said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had asked on Monday for changes to the proposal, which calls on President Bashar Assad to end violence against protesters and begin talks with his opposition.
"There has been agreement on some minor amendments, but the Arab delegation demanded a final response on Tuesday to the Arab proposal," the diplomat told Agence France Presse.
He said Syria would inform the Qataris, who headed a Arab delegation that met Muallem in Doha on Sunday, of its response.
At an emergency session in Cairo on October 16, the 22-member League called for "national dialogue" between the government and opposition by the end of the month to help stop the violence and avoid "foreign intervention" in Syria.
The region is reeling from unprecedented uprisings that have since January unseated three long-time dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.
Repeating previous warnings, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Assad risked forcing an international intervention if he allows the violence to continue.
"The entire region is at risk of a massive storm," Sheikh Hamad told reporters after Sunday's three-hour meeting.
Assad must take "concrete steps," he said, to end the unrest that according to the United Nations has claimed more than 3,000 Syrian lives since March.
Source: Agence France Presse
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