Syria Rejects Arab League Statement, Slams 'Biased Language'

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

Syria on Sunday rejected an Arab League statement demanding an end to the bloodshed in the country as the organization’s chief waited for a green light to travel to Damascus.

In a diplomatic note to the organization’s secretariat seen by Agence France Presse, Syria said the statement amounted to "a clear violation ... of the principles of the Arab League charter and of the foundations of joint Arab action."

The Syrian delegation protested that the declaration was issued "despite the meeting having closed with an agreement that no statement would be published or statement made to the press."

The statement contained "unacceptable and biased language," the note said, adding Damascus would act as if it had never been published.

The Arab League announced a peace initiative aimed at solving the crisis in Syria where more than 2,000 people have been killed in anti-regime protests, to be delivered in person by its secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi.

The 22-member organization’s foreign ministers at a meeting on Saturday night called in the statement for an "end to the spilling of blood and (for Syria) to follow the way of reason before it is too late."

They expressed their "concern faced with the grave developments on the Syrian scene which have claimed thousands of victims and wounded."

The foreign ministers also called for respecting "the right of the Syrian people to live in security and of their legitimate aspirations for political and social reforms."

Arabi said on Sunday that he was awaiting a Syrian invitation to travel to Damascus. "I'm waiting for the response of Syria's government," he told journalists in the Egyptian capital, adding he was ready to leave immediately.

Comments 1
Default-user-icon Beiruti (Guest) 29 August 2011, 03:02

The Arab League, like everyone else starts the Syria issue with the presumption that the Assad Regime is a "government" leading a "nation-state".
Syria is instead what Cuba would have become but for Castro intervening in the natural progression of Cuba as a place governed by the Mafia. The Assad Regime is a mafia operation. When its authority is challenged, the only response that it makes or that it can make is to snuff out the challengers. Kill most and intimidate the rest into submission.

Nothing that is done by NATO or the Arab League to "call for" Assad to stop, is worth a damn. The only thing that this criminal regime will recognize is a superior countervaling military force. With Obama taking military action off the table, the field is wide open for more brutal repression until the Assad's run out of money, guns or bullet.
As long as Gibran Bassil gets unfettered access to 2.1 billion dollars in Lebanon and is free to shuttle the money to Assad, then Assad will continue.