- Title: SYRIA: Syria says it won't accept Arab solutions to crisis.
- Date: 25th January 2012
- Summary: DAMASCUS, SYRIA (JANUARY 24, 2012) (REUTERS) (AUDIO AS INCOMING) ( * BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) VARIOUS OF SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER WALID AL-MOUALEM, ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WALID AL-MOUALEM, SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, SAYING: "The solution in Syria is definitely not the solution issued by the Arab League, and we refused. The solution is
- Embargoed: 9th February 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Syrian Arab Republic
- Country: Syria
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA5N1GXFXXM645X4HM3XSMKKZR2
- Story Text: Syria's foreign minister says the country will no longer accept Arab League solutions to its 10-month crisis and says "suitable procedures" will be used to stop the unrest.
Syria on Tuesday (January 24) said it will no longer accept Arab League solutions to its 10-month crisis.
Walid al-Moualem said the Arab League knew in advance that Syria would never accept its call on Sunday (January 22) for President Bashar al-Assad to step down and make way for a unity government to halt the bloodshed of a 10-month anti-government uprising.
"The solution in Syria is definitely not the solution issued by the Arab League, and we refused. The solution is a Syrian one that emerges from the benefits of Syrian people," Moualem said during a news conference in the capital Damascus.
The government deployed troops and tanks to crack down on the protest movement that began in March and has since fuelled an armed insurgency.
Damascus says it is fighting foreign-backed militants who have killed 2,000 members of its security forces. The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the army's crackdown.
The Arab League sent in monitors a month ago to check whether the country was implementing a peace plan that would see it withdraw its forces from cities, release detainees and start a dialogue with the opposition.
The monitors' report after their first month in Syria said heavy military equipment had been withdrawn but the plan had not been fully implemented.
Moualem said "suitable procedures" will be used to stop the unrest.
"It is the Syrian government's duty to take the suitable procedures in order to deal with those armed who are sabotaging in some of the cities," he said.
The Arab League has formally requested a one-month extension of its mission's mandate, but on Tuesday, Gulf states followed Saudi Arabia's lead and withdrew their observer teams, shortly before Moualem's news conference began.
Moualem said Syria was still studying the possibility of allowing the extension.
"I received a message from the Arab League Secretary General in which he demanded from the Syrian government to accept the extension of the observers' mission for an additional month. This request is under study and once we get the instructions we will pass them to the Arab League Secretary General," he said.
Moualem hailed Syria's relations with Russia saying its old ally will not allow foreign intervention.
"Russian position is warm. Nobody can question the Syrian-Russian relations because it is deep rooted and serves the benefits of both peoples. Russia cannot accept foreign intervention in Syria," he said.
Syria is becoming an Arab and international pariah for its harsh response to an uprising against Assad in which thousands of civilians, soldiers and policemen have been killed.
Moscow is one of Assad's remaining few allies, still serving top arms customers Syria while joining China in an October veto of a Western-crafted U.N. Security Council resolution that threatened arms embargo.
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