UN chief Arab League wants to resend mission to Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225719.html

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the Arab League (AL) chief has informed him that the League is ready to resend its observer mission to Syria.

Ban said in New York on Wednesday that AL’s Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi had told him during a Tuesday telephone conversation of the plan to resume the mission and had asked for it to become a joint UN-AL operation.

"He informed me that he intends to send the Arab League observer mission back to Syria and ask for UN help," Ban said.

“He further suggested that we consider a joint observer mission in Syria, including a joint special envoy.”

The League’s team ended its monitoring work in Syria on January 28.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of Assad. Hundreds of people, including many members of the Syrian security forces, have been killed during the violence.

Damascus blames ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups’ for the violence, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad. However, the West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters.

Some parts of the Arab League team’s confidential report prepared during the group’s initial presence in Syria leaked recently, showing that armed terrorists were responsible for most of the violence and that the government had fully cooperated with the mission and facilitated its work.

The Syrian government has repeatedly accused several Western and Arab states of fueling the unrest in Syria by providing armed gangs in the country with weapons and financial resources as a means of inciting civil war and toppling the government.

Damascus has also repeatedly said that negotiation was the only way to end the violence. Opposition groups, however, have rejected the proposal for talks.