BEIRUT, Jan 24, (Agencies): Saudi Arabia’s Gulf allies joined Riyadh on Tuesday in pulling out of an Arab League monitoring team to Syria, risking the collapse of a mission whose presence has not halted violence in a 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said his government was still considering whether to let the monitors stay for another month and criticised the Arab League for calling Assad to step down.
“Definitely the solution in Syria is not the solution suggested by the Arab League, which we have rejected,” he told a news conference. “They have abandoned their role as the Arab League and we no longer want Arab solutions to the crisis.”
Syria is becoming an Arab and international pariah for its harsh response to an uprising against Assad in which thousands of civilians, soldiers and policemen have been killed.
Envoys to the Cairo-based League will meet later in the day to discuss whether the monitoring mission has a future, Sudan’s ambassador to the 22-member body, Kamal Hassan Ali, said.
A League official said 55 Gulf Arab observers were being withdrawn from the 165-strong monitoring team. The Arab League demanded on Sunday that Assad step down in favour of a unity government to end the bloodshed, but said the observers should stay in Syria for another month.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at the time his country was quitting the mission because Syria had not implemented any part of an Arab peace plan agreed in November.
“The GCC states have decided to respond to the decision of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to withdraw its monitors from the Arab League delegation to Syria,” the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement.
Syria said on Tuesday it will spurn further Arab efforts to resolve its political crisis, as Gulf states piled on pressure by deciding to pull out their observers and urging strong UN action.
The Arab League said its monitors would be confined to base from Wednesday unless Damascus gives its approval for the mission to continue for a second month after an informal extension ran out.
“Enough of the Arab solutions from now,” Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said, accusing the Arabs of “plotting” to internationalise the crisis and taking decisions while “knowing that they will be rejected” by Damascus.
Syrian troops stormed Hama following large protests in the flashpoint central city on Tuesday, as three people died in violence elsewhere in the country, activists said.
“The Syrian armed forces stormed the neighbourhoods of Bab Qubli and Al-Jarajmah in Hama, firing heavy machineguns,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Activists in the city said that troops had gone on the offensive after large demonstrations earlier in the day.
“Since the morning, entrances to Hama have been blocked... Syrian troops stormed the city from its northern and western entrances,” Saleh al-Hamwi, spokesman of the General Revolution Commission, told AFP by telephone.
Anwar Amran, another anti-regime activist in Hama, said tanks had entered the city and there had been “heavy machinegun fire” in three different neighbourhoods.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on the Arab League on Tuesday to urge the UN Security Council to pass a resolution on Syria, as the League’s monitoring mission there, trying to halt months of violence, appeared close to collapse.
Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted Security Council resolution in October that condemned Syria’s crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad, and the League had hoped its monitors in Syria could stem the bloodshed.
France, Germany and Britain are embarking on a new diplomatic offensive to get the UN Security Council to add to international pressure on Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad over his crackdown on protests, diplomats said.
The European powers are seizing on the Arab League’s tough new stance on Syria, which Germany’s UN ambassador Peter Wittig said could be a “game changer.”
Wittig and the UN ambassadors from Britain and France met counterparts from some Arab League nations late Monday to discuss the next moves at the UN, after League foreign ministers sought Security Council endorsement for their new plan which calls for Assad to hand over powers to a deputy and elections.
The European countries have asked for the UN Security Council to request that Arab League secretary general Nabil al-Arabi brief the 15-member Security Council “as soon as possible”, diplomats said.
South Africa’s UN ambassador, Baso Sangqu, who is president of the council for January, said that no decision has been taken yet on the request.
“We had a useful meeting with the Arab League who want the active support of the UN Security Council. They, with the support of council members, will be taking that forward in the coming days,” said one western diplomat.
“We want a strong message that takes up the message of the Arab League,” said another western diplomat. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were in private.
A senior US diplomat visiting Russia will press Moscow on a reported deal to sell Syria fighter jets, something Washington described as “quite concerning,” the State Department said.
Jeffrey Feltman, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, was in Moscow on Monday and Syria was “issue number one on his agenda,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.
In Moscow, the Kommersant business daily reported that Syria had signed a $550-million (425-million-euro) contract to purchase 36 Yak-130 advanced training/light attack planes from Russia.
“Every time we talk to the Russians about Syria, we make the point about how dangerous we think it is to be continuing to trade in weapons and encouraging them to do what they can to stop such trades,” Nuland said.
“So with regards to these new reports, they came up today. We’ve sent them on for Ambassador Feltman to raise with the Russians,” Nuland added.
“We’ve seen the same press reports that you’ve seen. Obviously, if it’s accurate, it would be quite concerning.”
The committee tasked with drafting Syria’s new constitution has decided to limit presidential terms to a maximum of two seven-year mandates, Al-Watan newspaper said on Tuesday.
The draft constitution will be submitted to President Bashar al-Assad in “the coming days” before being put to a referendum, said the newspaper, which is close to the government.
Assad on January 10 said the referendum would be held early March.
The committee “decided to limit presidential terms to two seven-year mandates,” said the newspaper citing an informed source.
The new text also provides for the abolition of the presidential referendum which has been in force since 1971, replacing it with pluralistic elections.