Gulf Monitors Abandon Syria

Nabil el-Araby

This Wednesday the Gulf Arab monitors are leaving Syria after their governments assured they were “certain the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue.”

Meanwhile the Arab League looks for the support of the U.N. with a plan to end the rule of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However the League’s colleagues in Damascus would extend the observer mission until February 23, to verify Syria’s compliance with an Arab peace plan.

A senior Arab monitor, that asked not to be named, stated “the departure of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries will not have an impact on the mission’s work. We are all professionals here and we can do the job.”

Arab League chief Nabil el-Araby and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who leads the League’s committee on Syria, wrote together to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon setting out a plan to find a political solution in Syria. (AV)