Muallem: Some States Using Arab League as Tool to Reach Security Council
Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Sunday dismissed as "wishful thinking" a warning by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that his country risked descending into civil war.
"When Mrs. Clinton says the opposition is well-armed ... it is, as they say in English, 'wishful thinking'," Muallem told a news conference in Damascus.
Clinton warned on Friday that Syria was at the risk of a civil war following an attack on an intelligence military base by army defectors who call themselves the Free Syria Army.
Muallem also slammed members of the Arab League which he accused of working towards taking the Syrian issue to the United Nations Security Council.
"There is no room for hasty decisions, but rational thinking is needed because there are some parts of the Arab world which are using the Arab League as a tool to reach the Security Council," he said.
Turning to the issue of an Arab League threat to impose sanctions after the expiry of a deadline for Damascus to honor an agreement with the 22-nation bloc to end the bloodshed, Muallem brushed it off.
"We in Syria do not consider that the deadline is the important issue; the content is the important issue; and to reach an agreement with the Arab League is what counts," he said.
Asked to elaborate on comments by President Bashar al-Assad published on Sunday, that he was ready to fight and die for Syria, Muallem said: "If the battle is imposed on us, we will fight.
"We hope it will not be imposed on us ... the problem in Syria can only be solved by the Syrians themselves."
Arab foreign ministers are to hold crisis talks over Syria in Cairo on Thursday, the Arab League said after it rejected changes proposed by Damascus to its proposal to send an observer mission there.
"The Arab League council will hold an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, at the level of foreign ministers, and will be presided by Qatar," Arab League Deputy Secretary General Ahmed bin Hilli told reporters.
He said that the ministerial committee on Syria -- comprising Qatar, Egypt, Oman, Sudan, Algeria and Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi -- would meet at the Arab League headquarters on Wednesday to prepare for Thursday's meeting.
The foreign ministers are to discuss the next steps after the Arab bloc rejected amendments suggested by Damascus to a document outlining plans for a 500-strong delegation to monitor the violence in Syria, an Arab League source said.
"It was agreed that the amendments and appendices proposed by the Syrian side affect the core of the document and would radically change the nature of the mission which is to oversee the implementation of the Arab plan to end the crisis in Syria and protect Syrian civilians," the League said in a statement.
The pan-Arab group, which did not release details of the amendments proposed by Damascus, said it had notified Syria of its decision.
The statement said the Arab League had tasked Arabi to hold further talks with the Damascus government in a bid to have it sign the document on the observers within three days.
"The League is committed to solving the Syrian crisis within an Arab frame, in order to put an end to the violence and the killing and to respond to the ambitions of the Syrian people for change and political and economic reform," it said.
Under a November 2 deal with the League, Syria was given 15 days to pull back its troops from cities that were the focus of anti-government protests, release detainees, allow free movement for observers and media, and negotiate with the opposition.
The League under the deal was to send 500 members of human rights groups, media representatives and military observers to Syria to monitor the situation on the ground and help implement the peace plan.
A fresh deadline to end the bloodshed or face sanctions expired on Saturday, with no compliance from President Bashar al-Assad's security forces. Rights groups reported 20 people killed in Syrian violence on Saturday and Sunday.
With the peace deal in tatters, the Arab League has already suspended Syria from the 22-member bloc.
An Arab League source told Agence France Presse that the sanctions would not come into effect automatically and that the body would hold further talks to discuss the implementation of sanctions.
Source: Agence France Presse
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