Qatari PM: No Progress in Implementing Annan Plan on Syria
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Tuesday that no progress has been made to end Syria's deadly 13-month crisis.
"We hope the Syrian government responds" to U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, Sheikh Hamad told an Arab ministerial meeting in Doha. "We don't see any progress in implementing" it.
"Nothing has changed except for (Damascus) accepting" the plan, he said at the opening of the meeting. "Implementation is more important."
The meeting comes as U.N. observers admitted Tuesday they face a tough task to firm up a ceasefire in Syria, as five civilians were killed in the latest violence on the sixth day of a tenuous truce.
Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi, attending the Doha meeting as well as Annan, called for the ceasefire to be implemented "completely and immediately."
"Annan's mission is a political one which would take some time," he said.
The Arab ministerial committee, chaired by Qatar, includes Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, and Kuwait.
A spike in deadly violence forced the Arab League to end its own Syrian monitoring mission in late January, barely a month after sending observers.
On Monday, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said the chances of Annan's plan succeeding "are no higher than three percent", and that Syrians should not be supported through peaceful means but "with arms".
Qatar has taken a hawkish stance in favor of the year-old rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Rights monitors say the violence has killed at least 11,100 people since March 2011.
Source: Agence France Presse
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