Arab League plan to end Syrian violence meets silence

Demonstrators protesting against President Bashar al-Assad march through the streets in Homs The Arab League’s plan to end violence in Syria did not draw any response from President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which has been cracking down on protests since March.NATO has also ruled out the possibility of establishing a no-fly  zone over the country  “It’s totally ruled out. We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
“We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” he said, insisting that it differed greatly from Libya where they carried out a number of successful air strikes in their bid to topple Gaddafi.
 As many as 13 protesters were fired upon and killed by security forces on Monday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “Around nine deaths were reported in the protest hub city of Homs,” activists said.
The Arab League’s plan calls for tanks to be withdrawn from Syrian streets and for peaceful dialogue between the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad and its opponents, while the League is still awaiting a response from the Syrian delegation led by Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during talks in Doha on Sunday.
 “The Arab proposal to Syria calls for withdrawing tanks and all military vehicles to bring an immediate end to the violence and give assurances to the Syrian street,” said League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
The peace plan also calls for talks between Cairo between Syrian regime officials and opposition figures, he added.
The Syrian delegation left Doha without making any statements.
Fears are abound that if the Syrian bloodshed is left unchecked, it could inflame the rest of the Arab world.
A new constitution was one of the key demands of the Syrian opposition at the start of the anti-government protests in March. They are now demanding Assad's ouster.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Assad risked forcing an international intervention if he allows the violence to continue.
“The entire region is at risk of a massive storm,” Sheikh Hamad told reporters after Sunday’s three-hour meeting.
Assad must take “concrete steps,” he said, to end the unrest that according to the United Nations has claimed more than 3,000 Syrian lives since March.
Sunday’s Arab ministerial meeting “agreed on a serious proposal to stop the killing and all forms of violence in Syria,” said Sheikh Hamad.
A follow-up meeting will be held Wednesday in Cairo, “whether or not there is an agreement,” he added.
Assad earlier warned in an  interview with the UK’s Sunday Telegraph that any Western intervention in Syria would cause an “earthquake” across the Middle East.
“Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region,”  he said.
The Doha talks came as Syrian activists mounted pressure on the Arab League to suspend Syria’s membership of the 22-member bloc and organised protests across Syria on Sunday calling for the League to “freeze Syria’s membership”.