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Saudi Arabia said yesterday it was withdrawing its observers from Syria after an Arab monitoring mission failed to end 10 months of bloodshed, and called on the international community to exert “all possible pressure” on Damascus.
Hundreds of Syrians have been killed since the observers began their work in late December and political opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are demanding the Arab League refer the crisis to the UN Security Council.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi recommended to Arab foreign ministers yesterday that a monitoring mission to Syria be extended, expanded and get more technical support.
The Saudi comments suggest, however, that the extension of a mission Syria’s opposition has described as toothless will not be enough to satisfy everyone in the 22-member body.
“My country will withdraw its monitors because the Syrian government did not execute any of the elements of the Arab resolution plan,” Prince Saud al-Faisal told Arab foreign ministers at a closed door meeting in Cairo.
“We are calling on the international community to bear its responsibility, and that includes our brothers in Islamic states and our friends in Russia, China, Europe and the US,” Prince Saud said, calling for “all possible pressure” to push Syria to adhere to the Arab peace plan.
The Security Council is split on how to address the crisis, with Western powers demanding tougher sanctions and a weapons embargo, and Assad’s ally Russia preferring to leave the Arabs to negotiate a peaceful outcome.
Suggestions to send in UN experts to support the Arab observers made little headway at the last meeting earlier this month and Damascus has said it would accept an extension of the observer mission but not an expansion in its scope.
Syria’s opposition has demanded that Arab countries clearly state Assad’s failure to adhere to its peace plan, withdraw monitors and hand the file to the UN Security Council.
But Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia told al-Arabi they would oppose such a move, a League source said yesterday.
“The three states support solving the Syrian crisis inside the Arab League,” the source said.
Two Syrian army officers, an infantryman, a rebel and two civilians died in clashes yesterday in Talfita, a village in the Damascus region, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Intermittent fighting continued in the town of Douma, 14km northwest of the capital, which had been encircled by the military, said the UK-based rights group.
An opposition activist and a rebel fighter in Douma said by telephone the fighting had eased and the rebels held about two thirds of its main streets.
Masked fighters had set up checkpoints and a funeral procession for five civilians killed on Saturday was passing through the town, they said. Angry cries could be heard in the background as they spoke.
The rebel fighter said there were several casualties yesterday but no confirmed deaths.
Syrian forces opened fire on a car near the mountainous north Lebanese border town of Wadi Khaled, leading to an exchange of fire between the passengers and the Syrians, a Lebanese security source said. Residents later said they found a Syrian man wounded by landmines placed on the border.
Syria, keen to avoid tougher foreign action, has tried to show it is complying with the Arab peace plan, which demanded a halt to killings, a military pullout from the streets, the release of detainees, access for the monitors and the media, and a political dialogue with opposition groups.
This month the Syrian authorities have freed hundreds of detainees, announced an amnesty, struck a ceasefire deal with armed rebels in one town, allowed the Arab observers into some trouble spots and admitted some foreign journalists.
Assad also promised political reforms, while vowing iron-fisted treatment of the “terrorists” trying to topple him.