Arab League chief to visit Syria Wednesday

CAIRO: Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi will travel on Wednesday to Damascus carrying a peace initiative from the Cairo-based body to help solve the crisis in unrest-swept Syria, an Arab League official told AFP.

"The secretary general will visit (Syria) for one day only, heading a large delegation, and will carry with him the Arab initiative," the official said, confirming a report on Egypt's official news agency MENA.

Arabi announced on Sunday that Syria has agreed to host him this week.

After a special meeting on Syria that was held on August 27, the 22-member Arab League announced in a statement that Arabi would head to Damascus bearing "an initiative to solve the crisis" in Syria.

The ministers "asked the secretary-general of the Arab League to carry out an urgent mission to Damascus and transmit the Arab initiative to resolve the crisis to the Syrian leadership," said the statement.

It did not give details of the initiative.

But an Arab diplomat said the initiative reflects calls issued by the international community namely for a "halt to military operations, the release of prisoners and the launch of political reforms" in Syria.

The statement issued by the Arab foreign ministers after their August 27 meeting urged an "end to the spilling of blood and (for Syria) to follow the way of reason before it is too late."

They also called for respecting "the right of the Syrian people to live in security and of their legitimate aspirations for political and social reforms."

But Syria later said the statement contained "unacceptable and biased language," leaving Arabi to await a green light for a proposed visit.

On Monday Arabi said he got the greenlight to visit Syria.

"I have been informed that Syria welcomes" the visit, he told a news conference in Cairo, adding that it would take place "probably this week."

The repression in Syria has claimed more than 2,200 lives since March, according to the United Nations.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011