Syria Opposition Lobbies for U.N. Intervention

Opposition Syrian National Council leaders on Saturday pressed the Arab League to turn the Syria crisis over to the U.N., but the League looked set to extend its own mission criticized for its failure to stem 10 months of killing.

SNC chief Burhan Ghaliun met Arab League head Nabil al-Arabi in Cairo and lobbied against the extension of the League's peace mission, SNC spokeswoman Basma Qadmani said.

The SNC wants "the transfer of the Syria file to the U.N. Security Council," spokesman Mohammed Sermini told Agence France Presse in Cairo earlier, accusing the Damascus regime of "committing genocide and crimes against humanity."

But the Arab League is expected to extend its mission, even boosting the number of observers deployed, after foreign ministers hear on Sunday a report on the mission's first month of work.

The report will be delivered by the mission's chief, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan, who believes his mandate needs to be strengthened, not scrapped, a League official said.

Deputy Chief of operations, Ali Jarush, said Dabi is satisfied with the achievements of the operation so far and that "everything indicates that the observer mission in Syria will be extended by a month."

"Dabi sees that in the last phase the necessary thrust (of the operation) was achieved after more monitors were deployed and fanned across 20 areas and after they were provided with equipment and logistics which they previously lacked, he said

But the SNC charged that Dabi's report may not accurately reflect the situation in Syria.

The report should make a clear difference between the victim and executioner," Sermini said, adding that "leaks" indicate that the report says monitors are unable to determine who is doing the killing.

With officials headed for a weekend of meetings in the Egyptian capital, the killing in Syria continued on Saturday.

Qatar has proposed that Arab troops be deployed in Syria to "stop the killing," but the proposal was vehemently rejected by Damascus and apparently by many Arab countries, as well, because they do not want the conflict "internationalized," diplomats said.

Syria's state Ath-Thawra daily on Saturday accused Qatar of being a "tool" of the United States that is trying to bring down the President Bashar Assad's regime on orders from Washington.

"It is clear that Qatar ... is trying to distance itself from Arab League and the report" that is expected to call for its renewal, the paper alleged.

Human Rights Watch on Friday urged the League "to publicly recognize that Syria has not respected the League's plan and work with the Security Council to increase pressure on the authorities and effectively curtail the use of fire power."

The United Nations estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since anti-regime demonstrations erupted in March.