Syria's Brotherhood Says Arab Plan Deserves 'Careful Study'
Syria's opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Monday voiced willingness to "study" an Arab League plan for President Bashar al-Assad to transfer power to his deputy and clear the way for a national unity government.
"We see in this initiative elements that reflect seriousness and deserve careful study in the context of achieving our people's demands for justice, freedom, and life with dignity," it said.
The Brotherhood singled out the proposal for the embattled Assad to hand over power to his deputy.
The Arab League on Sunday asked the United Nations to support a new plan for resolving the crisis in Syria that would see Assad transfer power to his deputy and a government of national unity within two months.
Assad should "delegate powers to the vice president to liaise with a government of national unity," to be formed in two months, according to a statement read by Qatari premier Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.
The statement followed a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo to determine the fate of their Syrian observer mission.
Deployed since December 26 to oversee an Arab League peace plan, the observer mission has been widely criticized for its failure to stem the government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said ahead of the Cairo talks that Riyadh had pulled its observers from the mission because the Syrian government had "not respected any of the clauses" of the Arab peace plan.
The League agreed, however, to extend the mission and boost the number of observers, according to the final statement.
The League's secretary general Nabil al-Arabi, who attended Sunday evening's news conference in Cairo, explained that a request for U.N. support aimed to "give more weight" to the Arab initiative.
The foreign ministers urged "the Syrian government and all the opposition factions to engage in a serious dialogue under the auspices of the Arab League, within a period of not more than two weeks, to be able to achieve the formation of a unity government bringing together those in power and the opposition."
The new government's mission would be to implement the Arab League plan to end the crisis, and to prepare free and fair legislative and presidential elections under both Arab and international supervision.
It would also prepare the election of a constituent assembly within three months and a new constitution which would be put to a referendum.
After reading out the statement, the Qatari premier said the new plan envisaged the "peaceful departure of the Syrian regime," adding that the plan "resembles the one on Yemen," which resulted in President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreeing to step down.
"If this initiative is not put in place (by Damascus), we will go to the Security Council, where the decisions will be taken," Sheikh Hamad warned.
The Syrian National Council, the country's largest opposition group, has been lobbying in Cairo for U.N. intervention, and SNC chief Burhan Ghalioun welcomed the League's statement of its intention to seek U.N. support.
But he insisted "any transition in Syria should be preceded with the announcement of Assad's departure."
The Brotherhood is one of the main components of the SNC.
Another opposition group said the plan was "unattainable" due to a lack of a mechanism to implement its measures and would only allow the regime more time to pursue a deadly crackdown.
"The Syrian people have lost confidence in the Arab League's ability to stop the regime’s ongoing bloodshed," said the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which organizes anti-regime protests.
"The LCC finds the Arab League's ... proposal unattainable and lacking proper implementation mechanism," it said.
Ahead of a meeting with his European Union counterparts, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the EU would pledge its support for the Arab League initiative and call for Security Council backing.
"The violence in Syria must stop and this issue should be examined by the Security Council as the supreme guardian of international peace," he said.
International pressure has been steadily growing on Assad's regime, as more than 5,400 people have been killed since anti-government protests broke out last March, according to U.N. figures.
But a tough Security Council resolution on Syria has been blocked by veto-wielding permanent members China and Russia, with Moscow insisting the opposition is as much to blame for the violence as the regime.
A report delivered earlier on Sunday by the chief of the Arab League's monitoring mission, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan, also blamed both sides for the bloodshed, according to an Arab diplomatic source.
The Arab League deployed observers in Syria on December 26, and there are presently about 165 monitors on the ground.
Source: Agence France Presse
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