WASHINGTON, Nov 10, (Agencies): Arab leaders are privately telling the United States that they have offered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asylum in a bid to get him to step down, a top US diplomat told lawmakers on Wednesday.
“Some Arab leaders already have begun to offer Assad safe-haven in an effort to encourage him to leave peaceably and quickly,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.
“Almost all the Arab leaders say the same thing: Assad’s rule is coming to an end. Change in Syria is now inevitable,” Feltman told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a hearing on Assad’s bloody crackdown on dissent.
While some talk of a “palace coup” in Damascus, Feltman said, “I think that’s very unlikely.”
Syria’s lethal response to protests that erupted in mid-March has left more than 3,500 people dead, according to the United Nations, and fed increasing international anger at the regime in Damascus.
Under the plan, Damascus would also release those detained for protesting, and withdraw all Syrian forces from towns and cities. It says it has already released more than 500.
But since signing the Arab roadmap Syrian forces have killed another 60 people up to Tuesday, according to the United Nations.
Feltman pleaded with the opposition “to continue to reject violence. To do otherwise would, frankly, make the regime’s job of brutal repression easier” while crippling domestic and international support for the protests.
“It will play into the regime’s hands, divide the opposition, and undermine international consensus against the regime,” said the diplomat, who worried about some protestors “taking up arms in self-defense” against the crackdown.
This is “potentially disastrous” to foes of the regime, which has pursued “a deliberate and bloody strategy” of trying to provoke dissenters to shift from peaceful demonstrations to violent uprisings.
“It is stoking the fears of Syria’s minority communities with blatant propaganda about foreign conspiracies and domestic terrorism while cynically claiming that the regime is their only protection from the cycle of violence and sectarianism,” he said.
His comments came as Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, in a letter to the UN Security Council, charged that Washington “encourages armed groups to continue their criminal activities against the people and state.”
He referred to US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s advice to Syrians on Friday against surrendering in response to the Damascus government’s offer of an amnesty for those who give up their weapons.
Feltman also said that US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, abruptly withdrawn last month because of security threats, will head back to his post in “days to weeks.”
The US State Department had said in late October that Ford aimed to return to Syria by the Thanksgiving holiday, which falls on November 24 this year.
At least 25 people were killed in Syria on Thursday, including 14 civilians shot in a military crackdown on protesters calling for President Bashar al-Assad to go, and five soldiers killed in ambushes, activists said.
Thousands marched at funerals for 24 civilians killed by pro-Assad forces the day before, said activists, including eight in Damascus in one of the bloodiest attacks on demonstrations in the capital since the start of the seven-month uprising.
Rallies demanding Assad’s removal continued across the country.
“We are going to heaven, martyrs in the millions,” sang a crowd at a rally in the town of Helfaya near Hama, according to a YouTube video. The song has become a popular chant in other Arab countries witnessing “Arab Spring” revolts.
Thursday’s death toll included 14 civilians shot by loyalist forces in the city of Homs, 140 km (90 miles) north of Damascus, where troops have been trying to crush protests and a nascent armed insurgency, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Five soldiers were killed in ambushes near Maarat al-Numaan, a town 70 km south of Aleppo, and in the country’s tribal desert east, said the British-based group, headed by dissident Rami Abdelrahman.
The United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in Assad’s crackdown. Authorities blame armed groups for the violence, saying more than 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed.
Syria has barred most foreign media, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.
An activist in the eastern Damascus suburb of Harasta, who gave his name as Assem, said three defectors were killed after they abandoned military units which fired live ammunition at a demonstration of 1,500-2,000 people in the al-Zar neighbourhood.
“Security police could not put down the demonstration. The eight soldiers defected when Republican Guards and the Fourth Armoured Division were sent in,” he said.
Divided
Arab states remain widely divided over how to deal with Syria’s crackdown on protesters after a peace plan brokered by its neighbours failed to stem violence, and there is little likelihood a meeting this week will bridge the gap.
Several countries oppose bringing serious pressure to bear on President Bashar al-Assad and it looks unlikely that foreign ministers will freeze Syria’s membership of the Arab League at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday, officials due to attend say.
If Arab states isolated Syria, that would help Assad’s sternest critics in the West gain a broader consensus for tougher sanctions and, perhaps, some form of intervention.
Saudi Arabia leads a group of Gulf states including Qatar, Oman and Bahrain that are ready to increase the pressure on Assad, an ally of their rival Iran.
Diplomats say they are opposed by countries such as Yemen, which is in the grip if its own uprising; Lebanon — where Syria’s influence looms large; and Algeria, seen as more sympathetic to Assad and nervous about the message any intervention in Syria would send to its own frustrated population.
The continued bloodshed on Syria’s streets since an Arab Peace Plan was brokered last week seems to have done little to shift the mood in favour of tougher action.
“The League might ask for Syria to allow it to monitor the situation by itself through representatives sent there for a set short period,” an Arab diplomat told Reuters.
Freezing Syria out of the Arab League was unlikely to happen this weekend, he said, even though that would only require a majority of countries to be in favour.
“If the monitoring fails, the League could discuss freezing Syria’s membership or ask for United Nations intervention but it will not ask for military intervention as this has to be approved by all 22 countries,” the diplomat added.
Two Syrian theatre actors known for their plays mocking authority headed to Egypt on Thursday, fleeing possible arrest in their country but vowing to pursue their pro-democracy struggle.
Mohamed and Ahmed Malas, 29-year-old twin brothers, left to Cairo from Beirut, where they had been living in hiding for the past month.
The two brothers spoke with AFP in Beirut late Wednesday but asked that their statements be withheld pending their arrival in Cairo.
The twins said they were concerned about their safety while in Lebanon where they feared they could be kidnapped or arrested because of their stance against the Syrian regime which is battling an eight-month revolt.
“We are headed to Egypt where we will continue our work in support of the revolution in Syria,” said Mohamed.
He said he and his brother avoided publicity while in Lebanon for fear they could be arrested or kidnapped.
Libya
Libya’s former prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi will get a “fair trial” when he is extradited from Tunisia to face Libyan justice, interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil told AFP on Thursday.
“First of all we will ensure a secure place for him, then we will guarantee a fair trial, despite the acts he has perpetrated against the Libyan people,” said Abdel Jalil, chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council.
Similar assurances were offered in Tripoli by interim oil minister Ali Tarhuni, who told AFP that Mahmudi would be given a public trial.
“Everything will be done to guarantee a fair trial,” Tarhuni said, adding that no date had yet been set for the former premier’s extradition.
Human rights groups have expressed fears for Mahmudi’s safety if he is sent back to Libya from Tunisian captivity after ousted Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi was felled by a bullet to the head when captured by NTC fighters last month.
Mahmudi, 70, was prime minister until the final days of the Gaddafi regime. He was arrested on September 21 on Tunisia’s southwestern border with Algeria and jailed for illegal entry.
A Tunisian appeals court this week gave the nod for his extradition to Libya.
Mahmudi’s lawyer Mabrouk Kourchid said in Tunis that his client fears for his life as the sole holder of Libyan state secrets since Gaddafi’s death on October 20.
During the extradition hearing in a Tunis court, dozens of Libyans rallied outside the building demanding the man they called the “third tyrant of Libya” — after Gaddafi and his son Seif al-Islam — be sent back to face justice.
“The Libyan people have the right to apply the law to those who robbed the people,” one banner read.
Kourchid said Mahmudi “does not oppose a fair verdict for the whole period during which he was prime minister. But Mr Mahmudi thinks the time is not right, because the current period of chaos prevailing in Libya is dominated by vengeance.”
Amnesty International last week urged Tunisia not to extradite Mahmudi, saying he risked being subject to “serious human rights violations.”
Concessions
Libya’s interim government is unlikely to award new oil concessions or take major economic decisions, saving those for an elected leadership, as it focuses instead on restoring security after the country’s eight-month civil war, the outgoing finance minister said Thursday.
The transitional government is being formed by Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib, who said Thursday that he needs up to two more weeks to complete the job. El-Keib’s government would remain in place until June, the deadline for electing a 200-member national assembly that would choose a new prime minister.
Restarting oil production has been a major focus of Libya’s interim rulers. The industry was virtually paralyzed during the fighting that ended in late October, with the capture and death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Ali Tarhouni, the outgoing finance and oil minister, said Libya is now producing about 570,000 barrels a day, compared to the daily pre-war output of 1.6 million barrels. He said daily output could surpass 700,000 barrels by the end of the year, and that natural gas exports via pipeline to Italy will resume in coming days.
The main challenge of the incoming government is to establish functioning security services, including an army and border guards, Tarhouni told reporters at his office. Currently, semi-autonomous militias that had fought against Gadhafi still control key locations, including Tripoli’s main airport.
“I don’t anticipate that this transitional government will make major decisions” on the economy, Tarhouni said. “It’s (in power for) eight months, and most of these big infrastructure projects most likely will be delayed until you have a constitution, an elected government. I don’t expect, for example, that this transitional government will give new concessions for oil.”
An elected government will likely push to diversify the Libyan economy and strengthen the private sector, Tarhouni said. The old regime relied almost entirely on oil revenues, while private business was hampered by restrictions and corruption.
Tarhouni said tourism and financial services could become major sources of revenue in the future.
“I think that that’s one of the major shifts, strategically, for the economy of Libya,” he said when asked about decreasing the dependence on oil. “Hopefully, the elected government will take this issue seriously, and there are enough people who believe in what I just said.”