Syria Says U.S. behind 'Bloody Events', Urges Arab Help
Syria has sent the Arab League a letter asking for support against what it called U.S. involvement in "bloody events" in the country, the 22-member pan-Arab group said in a statement on Monday.
The statement said the letter from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused Washington "of actual involvement in bloody events in Syria" and asked the League to "condemn the involvement and to do what is necessary to end it."
In the letter, Syria, which is under growing pressure to implement an Arab plan to end violence against protesters, sought Arab assistance "to provide the appropriate atmosphere to implement the agreement," said the statement.
Muallem also sent the letter to the foreign ministers of Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil, chairman and members of the Arab ministerial committees, the Arab League secretary general, the U.N. secretary general, and the president of the U.N. Security Council, Syria’s official news agency SANA said.
“After the Syrian Arab Republic took an important step to stop violence by calling upon armed men to hand down their weapons … Syria was surprised by the statement of the U.S. Department of State's spokeswoman calling upon the gunmen not to hand over their weapons to the Syrian government,” SANA quoted Muallem as saying in the letter.
Muallem added that Syria sees the U.S. call as a “direct involvement in the sedition and violence in Syria which cost the Syrian army, police and civilians innocent victims.”
“Syria considers the U.S. call an encouragement to the armed groups to continue their criminal acts against the Syrian people and state, which negates the claims of peaceful protests and shows a desire to obstruct the initiative and efforts of the Arab League,” SANA quoted Muallem as saying.
The top Syrian diplomat “briefed the foreign ministers that the Syrian government has reacted positively to the AL initiative and is exerting efforts to implement it, hoping they would … exert every effort to put an end” to the alleged U.S. involvement, SANA reported.
The Arab League on Sunday accused Syria of failing to honor the plan it agreed last week to end violence against protesters, and said Arab foreign ministers would meet on Saturday to discuss their next step.
The meeting, it said, was called because of "the continuation of violence and because the Syrian government did not implement its commitments in the Arab plan to resolve the Syrian crisis."
The League's deputy secretary general told Agence France Presse on Monday that Syria had sent a letter detailing the steps it took towards carrying out the plan, but he refused to elaborate.
The plan called on President Bashar al-Assad to open talks with his opposition, parts of which on Monday called for international protection of civilians in the central city of Homs, which is besieged by Assad's troops.
Damascus on Saturday strongly condemned Washington after the U.S. State Department advised Syrians against surrendering following an amnesty for those who give up weapons.
"The American administration disclosed again its blatant interference in Syria's internal affairs, and its policy which supports killing, in addition to its funding of the terrorist groups in Syria," SANA said quoting a foreign ministry official.
Syria's interior ministry announced an amnesty on Friday for people who surrender their weapons between Saturday and November 12 in a concession to mark the Eid al-Adha feast, state television reported.
The State Department on Friday advised Syrians against surrendering to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
"I wouldn't advise anybody to turn themselves in to regime authorities at the moment," said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, adding Assad's regime had so far failed to live up to the deal reached with the Arab League.
"This would be about the fourth amnesty that they've offered since I took this job about five months ago," she told reporters. "So we'll see if it has any more traction than it's had in the past."
Declaring Homs a "humanitarian disaster area," the Syrian National Council urged Monday the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to act "to stop the massacre committed by the regime."
The SNC, which groups the main currents of the opposition, also called in its statement for the evacuation of civilians away from "areas that are under shelling and destruction."
The group said the regime had "launched a large-scale attack" overnight Sunday to Monday on the districts of Homs and that "indiscriminate slaughter is being committed by the regime's militias."
The latest deaths bring to at least 70 the number of people killed since Assad's government signed on to the Arab League peace plan on Wednesday last week.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy artillery clashes erupted overnight between soldiers and presumed army defectors in Homs leaving "dozens of dead and wounded in both camps."
"Shooting could be heard in Homs where neighborhoods came under heavy machinegun fire at dawn," said the Observatory in a statement, adding "more than 40 explosions were heard."
The United Nations estimates more than 3,000 people have been killed in Syria in the brutal security crackdown since anti-regime demonstrations erupted in mid-March.
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse
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