Arab states set to keep monitors in Syria

A delegation from the Syrian National Council (SNC) will head to the United Nations in an effort to press the Security Council for intervention in unrest-swept Syria, an SNC spokesman told AFP on Sunday. “The Council will send a delegation to the United Nations to submit a letter calling for the referral of the Syria file to the Security Council to protect civilians,” Mohammed Sermini told AFP news agency in Cairo. Sermini said the SNC was preparing a “counter-report” to one that the Arab League was to receive later Sunday from the head of an observer mission to Syria. “We fear that the Arab League report is not objective,” he said. The Arab League is holding a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday and is expected to announce it will extend its peace mission in Syria. The ministers will debate the findings of the month-long monitoring mission, whose mandate expired on Thursday, and must decide whether to extend, withdraw or strengthen it. SNC chief Burhan Ghalioun has told reporters that the observers were not properly equipped to give a fair assessment of Syria’s compliance with the Arab peace plan and his group would reject any findings that fell short of the Syrian people’s aspirations. Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi is to chair the meeting of the foreign ministers from the 22-member bloc. Sunday’s report is being delivered by the mission’s chief, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan, who believes his mandate needs to be strengthened, not scrapped, a League official told AFP. In a statement late Saturday, Dabi said the mission’s mandate “is to verify that the Syrian government has implemented the terms of an Arab League plan to solve the crisis, not to stop the bloodshed and violence.” International pressure has been steadily growing on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with more than 5,400 people killed since anti-government protests broke out in March last year, according to U.N. figures. The Arab League has been trying to organize a congress of Syrian opposition factions and has called for a national dialogue between the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents. But the SNC’s Sermini reiterated the opposition group’s position that talks with Assad are out of the question. “The Syrian National Council maintains the demands of the revolution and will not engage in a dialogue until after the departure of Assad,” he said.