Arab League Reportedly Offers Review of Syria Sanctions
The Arab League has offered to review its sanctions on Syria if Damascus agrees to a plan to send observers to the restive country, a league official told Agence France Presse on Monday.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has also indicated that the 22-member organization, which agreed a raft of sanctions on Sunday, would be willing to slightly modify the observers' mission.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Arabi made the offer in a letter to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem "to review all measures taken" by Arab foreign ministers.
The ministers agreed on Sunday in Cairo to impose sweeping sanctions on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad over its refusal to allow in observers during his deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Arabi offered to allow closer coordination between the observers and the Syrian regime, according to the letter.
The sanctions include an immediate ban on transactions with the Syrian government and central bank and a freeze on Syrian government assets in Arab countries.
They also bar Syrian officials from visiting any Arab country and call for a suspension of all flights to Arab states to be implemented on a date to be fixed at a meeting next week.
Assad's regime has already been subjected to a raft of Western sanctions, led by the United States and European Union.
Source: Agence France Presse
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