Arab League hands Syria plan to end unrest

[pampango]

Source: Aljazeera

The Arab League has handed Syrian officials a plan for ending seven months of increasingly violent unrest against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

The Arab League committee put its plan, involving talks in Cairo between the Syrian authorities and their opponents, to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem and Bouthaina Shaaban, a political adviser to Assad, on Sunday in Qatar.

As Arab ministers met in Qatar, Assad told Russian television that he was willing to talk to the opposition. "We will co-operate with all political powers, both those who had existed before the crisis, and those who arose during it," he said. "We believe interacting with these powers is extremely important."

Also on Sunday, China's Middle East envoy called on the Syrian government to speed up reforms it has promised in response to popular demands, saying the situation was dangerous and the bloodshed could not continue.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/20111030231723111780.html

---

As Juan Cole has pointed out, any outside military intervention is both unlikely and unlikely to work. Russia, China and the Arab League are the main players that are preventing the UN from even condemning the crackdown in Syria and enacting UN-endorsed sanctions against the regime.

He can probably play for more time by engaging in some back-and-forth discussions with all three, but he knows he has to be careful about how he plays that game. If Russia, China and the Arab League are just posturing for now, that may lead to a real problem for him in the future.

[No Elephants]

1. Or, Assad could try Moumar's plan.