Arab ministers to meet this week on Syria

An Arab League plan to send a monitoring mission to Syria compromises the country's sovereignty but Damascus has not rejected the mission, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Sunday.   

Moallem told reporters in the Syrian capital that the proposed mission has "pervasive jurisdiction that reaches the level of violating Syrian sovereignty" and said he would send the Arab League a letter with questions about its role.   

The League had previously given Syria three days from Nov. 16 to abide by a deal to withdraw its forces from restive cities, start talks with the opposition and pave the way for a League observer team.

The Arab League has rejected a request by Damascus to amend plans to send a monitoring mission to Syria, where the army has been used to crackdown on protest against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, Egypt's state news agency reported on Sunday.        

It said the League rejected Syria's request in a letter from the Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby to Syria's foreign minister. The League wants to send a 500-strong mission of monitors to Syria to assess the situation there.         

The League had given Damascus three days from a meeting on Nov. 16 to abide by an Arab plan aimed at ending the violence and starting talks between the government and opposition. The plan included sending a monitoring team to Syria.  

On the other hand, Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Thursday to discuss Syria, which has failed to heed a deadline to halt a crackdown on protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.

An official at the Cairo-based body says the committee handling the Syrian file, which includes Egypt, Sudan, Algeria and Qatar, would meet a day earlier to prepare for the ministerial meeting.


-Reuters