Arab League proposes solution to Syria crisis

AN ARAB League committee has submitted a plan to end the bloodshed in Syria, Qatar’s foreign minister said yesterday.

The proposals include removing tanks from the streets, the Arab League’s chief, Nabil al-Arabi, said as the organisation awaited a response from Damascus yesterday.

It was also reported to have called for dialogue between the opposition and regime officials in Cairo.

The announcement comes amid intensified efforts by the 22-nation group toward resolving the deadly seven-month confrontation between the regime of president Bashar Assad and protesters demanding his overthrow.

The Arab League panel held a “clear and frank” meeting with a Syrian delegation in Qatar on Sunday, said Qatari foreign minister Hamad bin Jassim.

An Arab diplomat in the league headquarters in Egypt, meanwhile, said the Arab League will hold an extraordinary session to discuss the unrest-torn nation today.

The ministers will receive a report on the mission to Syria and a “plan of action,” said the official.

The uprising against Mr Assad began in mid-March during a wave of anti-government protests in the Arab world that toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The United Nations says that Mr Assad’s crackdown has left more than 3,000 people dead.

Some influential figures in the Syrian opposition have refused to talk to the Assad regime while the military crackdown continues; others see dialogue as a way out of the crisis.

In an interview published on Sunday, Mr Assad warned the Middle East will burn if the west intervenes in his country’s seven-month-old uprising, threatening to turn the region into “tens of Afghanistans.”