Syria 'Still Mulling' Arab League Response to Its Conditions

The Syrian foreign ministry said Friday that Damascus was still mulling a response it had received from the Arab League to its request for lifting the Arab sanctions as a precondition for allowing foreign observers to enter the country to assess the situation on the ground.

“The foreign ministry has received the response of the secretary general (Nabil al-Arabi) and it is still under scrutiny,” ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdesi said in a statement.

The Arab League sought Iraq's help on Thursday in persuading Syria to allow observers on its soil as part of efforts to end the unrest.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told a joint news conference in Baghdad with Arab League chief Arabi that Iraq would try to convince Syria to accept an Arab peace deal and the deployment of monitors.

"We will exert efforts and discuss with the Syrian government how to remove all the obstacles facing this initiative," said Zebari.

Arabi added: "The ball is in the Syrian court."

Iraq has close trade ties with Syria and has refused to enforce the sweeping sanctions against Damascus approved by the Arab League on November 27 over the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protests.

The Arab League wants Syria to allow a group of observers in the country to monitor the situation on the ground.

Burhan Ghalioun, who heads the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), said Assad's conditional acceptance of observers does not amount to meaningful progress, in an interview published Thursday in Brazil's Estado de Sao Paulo daily.

"The president (Assad) is viewed as a murderer by the majority of the Syrian people and any negotiation for a democratic transition requires Assad relinquishing power," Ghalioun said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the monitors would be allowed to enter the country under certain conditions, according to the text of a letter to Arabi published by Syrian newspapers.

If Syria allows observers into the country all the Arab bloc's sanctions would become "null and void", the letter said.

An Arab League ministerial team is due to meet on Saturday in Qatar to discuss the next move, according to an Arab diplomat.