Introduction to the evening news 06-11-2011

Four days after Damascus approved the Arab League’s plan to halt the crackdown, the implementation remains ink on paper. Contrary to yesterday’s announcement, Syrian troops did not withdraw from the country’s cities, and the death toll keeps increasing. In parallel, the opposition’s Syrian National Council has refused to engage in any dialogue as long as President Bashar Assad remains in power.    

Though the initiative was attacked by both the regime and the opposition, the Arab ministerial committee on Syria accused Damascus of failing to commit to the initiative’s implementation, calling on the Arab foreign ministers to hold an emergency meeting on Saturday. Furthermore, the fact that the committee’s chair Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al-Thani extended the deadlines given to Syria, suggests that the earlier 15-day grace period was a prelude to toughest regionally or internationally coordinated measures against the Syrian regime. In this regard, French minister of foreign affairs Alain Juppe said that this “regrettable” turn of events does not reflect well on the United Nations, pointing out the Security Council’s incompetence.       

In Lebanon, on the eve of the prime minister’s meeting with his British counterpart, Hezbollah raised the tone against the STL, while the party’s Television “Al-Manar” conducted an interview with General Michel Aoun. The FPM leader reiterated the unconstitutionality of the STL, adding that the Security Council cannot compel Lebanon to fund a tribunal it already imposed.