KUWAIT CITY, Jan 25, (Agencies): Kuwaiti army officers — who took part in the mission of the Arab League monitors in Syria – returned home today having been recalled by the decision made by the GCC foreign ministers to end their stint in that country, a Kuwait army press statement indicated on Wednesday.
The Kuwaiti participation in the monitoring mission in Syria came in response to directives of the ministerial council at the Arab League regarding the Arab initiative to send Arab observers to Syria to keep close tabs on tumultuous events there, said the statement.
The State of Kuwait has called on Syria to implement the Arab League initiative adopted last Sunday in Cairo, Egypt, and to initiate a political reform that meets the people’s aspirations.
The call was made by acting Charge d’Affaires of Kuwait’s permanent mission to the UN Adviser Mohammad Faisal Al-Mutairi before the UN Security Council while discussing the Middle East status including the Palestinian cause.
He said that countries in the Middle East had placed in the Security Council their hopes for ending Israeli violations of international law, including the Gaza blockade, demolition of properties, forced deportations and impunity for attacks against Palestinians, all of which undermined efforts to resume the peace process on the basis of a two-state solution.
It was essential that the Council send Israel a strong, unconditional message to end its illegal practices, he said, emphasizing that priority must be given to ending the expansion of settlements.
The international community has an obligation to protect Palestinians under international law and to implement previous agreements, he added.
He insisted that Israel must also withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan and from all Lebanese territory.
Government forces clashed with army defectors and stormed rebellious districts in central Syria on Wednesday, firing mortars and deploying snipers in violence that killed at least seven people, including a mother and her 5-year-old child, activists said.
Pressure on Syria to end 10 months of bloodshed has so far produced few results. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia have pulled out of the Arab League’s observers mission, asking the UN Security Council to intervene. Decisive action from the UN appeared unlikely, however, as Russia, a strong Syrian ally, has opposed moves like sanctions.
While Syria has approved extension of the observers’ presence for another month, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem signaled that the crackdown on protests will continue, insisting that Syria will solve its own problems.
Russia said on Wednesday it would consider “constructive proposals” to end bloodshed in Syria but was opposed to force or sanctions, as regime troops reportedly pounded the protest hub of Hama.
“We are open to constructive proposals that go in line with the set task of ending violence,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow after meeting his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.
Lavrov said any UN Security Council resolution backed by Russia “must firmly record that it cannot be used or interpreted to justify anyone’s outside military intervention in the Syria crisis.”
His comments came after Russian and US officials held talks in Moscow on how to stop the violence in Syria, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,400 people since it erupted in mid-March.
An “armed terrorist group” on Wednesday killed a priest in the protest hub of Hama, in central Syria, official media said, as regime forces reportedly pounded the city for a second day.
“An armed terrorist group killed the priest Bassilius Nassar as he was helping a man who was wounded in the neighbourhood of Al-Jarajmah in Hama,” 210 UN (130 miles) north of Damascus, SANA state news agency said.
The head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northern town of Idlib was shot dead on Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
“We just learned a few minutes ago of the death of Mr Abdulrazak Jbero, head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent branch in Idlib. Mr Jbero was on his way by car from Damascus to Idlib. He was shot. Circumstances are still unclear,” Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, head of ICRC operations for the Near and Middle East, told Reuters.
“Regardless of the circumstances, the ICRC condemns this very severely,” she said. “The lack of respect for medical services is still a great issue in Syria.”
Jbero, a Syrian national, served as first president of the country’s Red Crescent society, an ICRC spokesman said.
Observers from Gulf Arab states left Syria on Wednesday after their governments said they were “certain the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue”, and the Arab League pursued UN support for a plan to end President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
But their colleagues in Damascus pledged to pursue the League’s monitoring mission, now extended until Feb 23, to verify Syria’s compliance with an earlier Arab peace plan.
“The departure of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries will not have an impact on the mission’s work. We are all professionals here and we can do the job,” said a senior Arab monitor, who asked not to be named.
European and Arab nations want a UN Security Council vote next week on a resolution condemning Syria’s crackdown on protests and hinting at sanctions, diplomats said Tuesday.
Britain, France, Germany and Arab nations are working on the resolution which could face Russian opposition because of a call on all states to follow Arab League sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad.
Western diplomats stressed however there would be negotiations with Russia and that it was crucial for the 15-member Security Council to draw up a message after being deadlocked since the start of the Syria protests last March.
Russia and China vetoed a previous European attempt in October to get a resolution passed condemning Assad for the violence in which the UN says more than 5,400 people have been killed.
A group of Western and Arab nations are seeking the expulsion of Syria from the UN cultural agency’s human rights committee, diplomats said, the latest international effort to isolate Damascus over its violent crackdown on domestic unrest.
The UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) executive board, which includes the United States, France and Russia, elected Syria to two panels in November, including one that judges human rights violations.
A letter seen by Reuters and signed by 14 ambassadors, including those of the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Qatar and Kuwait, asks for Syria’s situation to be discussed at the 58-member UNESCO executive board meeting on Feb 27.

Bahrain
A Bahraini court ruled on Wednesday that King Hamad acted lawfully when he declared a quasi state of emergency in March ahead of a crackdown on Shiite-led democracy protests.
The constitutional court “rejected the appeal into the constitutionality of the articles of the (state of) National Safety,” the official BNA news agency reported.
National Safety is the first of two categories of exceptional measures that the king can resort to in times of emergency. The second is a full state of Martial Law.
An independent commission King Hamad tasked with probing the bloody clampdown on a month-long protest in mid-March had recommended that the constitutional court review the royal declaration of a three-month State of National Safety.
The commission found 35 people were killed in the crackdown on protests, including five security personnel and five detainees who were tortured to death in custody.
Hundreds were hurt during the unrest.
The defence teams of scores of the predominantly Shiite defendants who appeared before the National Safety Court had questioned the legality of the royal decree, but the court dismissed their challenge.
“This decree violated the laws of Bahrain. Many laws were suspended due to the decree,” said Matar Matar, a leading figure in the Wefaq main Shiite opposition formation.
“Even in the case of declaring emergency law, it is not permissible to have an absolute suspension of laws... In reality, many laws and articles of the constitution were suspended, and public liberties that are protected by the constitution were violated,” he said.
The former MP who resigned in February along with all Wefaq deputies in protest over the use of violence against demonstrators, criticised the latest ruling.
“We in the opposition, and Wefaq, believe after today’s ruling that the whole judicial system is politicised,” he said.
Bahraini police dispersed anti-government protesters who blocked roads in several villages, an official statement said on Wednesday, as tensions in the Shiite-majority Gulf kingdom continue to rise.
Public Security Chief Major General Tariq al-Hassan said “vandals blocked roads” and threw petrol bombs during Tuesday night clashes, according to a statement published on the official BNA news agency website.
Hassan said security forces made “several arrests” in Shiite villages, but gave no further details on the exact location of the clashes or if there were any injuries.
Former opposition MP Matar Matar told AFP that protesters clashed with security forces in at least four Shiite villages, leaving several people injured, including one who remains in serious condition after being hit on the head with a tear gas canister.
“One young man is in hospital and is in critical condition,” said Matar, who is also a member of the key Shiite opposition group Al-Wefaq, noting another two protesters have been killed in recent months from similar tear gas injuries.
“This indicates the existence of a (government) policy to intentionally injure protesters rather than just merely disperse them,” said Matar.
On December 31, Al-Wefaq said 15-year-old Sayyed Hashem Saeed died after being hit in the head by a tear gas canister.
The government at the time released a statement saying they would investigate the teenager’s death.
According to Matar, Tuesday night’s clashes erupted after posts on social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, called on Bahrainis to go out and “confront” the security forces.