Syria may keep monitors, Obama calls for regime change

Syria may let Arab monitors stay on after their mission expires on Thursday, but foes of President Bashar al-Assad say the U.N. Security Council should step in to halt 10 months of bloodshed.   

Arab foreign ministers, due to consider their next step later this week, are split over how to handle Syria, as is the  Security Council, which has failed to adopt any position.   

U.S. President Barack Obama has again called for a change of government, saying the level of violence in Syria was unacceptable.   

Hundreds of killings on both sides have been reported since the Arab League sent observers last month to see whether Damascus was respecting a peace plan it accepted on Nov. 2.   

"We will continue to consult very closely with Jordan to create the kind of international pressure and environment that encourages the current Syrian regime to step aside," Obama said after meeting Jordan's King Abdullah in Washington on Tuesday.   

An Arab League source said Damascus would accept a one-month extension of the monitoring mission, but no broadening of its mandate. Critics say the observers have only provided Assad with diplomatic cover and more time to crush his opponents.   

The United Nations said on Dec. 13 that Assad's security forces had killed more than 5,000 people since the unrest erupted in mid-March. Nine days later, the government said "armed terrorist groups" had killed 2,000 security personnel.

Reuters