Gulf monitors leave Syria, League seeks UN support

DAMASCUS: Gulf Arab monitors headed out of Syria on Wednesday after their governments said they were "certain the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue", and the Arab League pursued UN support for a plan to end President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

But their colleagues in Damascus pledged to pursue an observer mission, now extended until Feb. 23, to verify Syria's compliance with an earlier Arab peace plan.

"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," said a senior Arab monitor, who asked not to be named.

"We were around 170 or so and now with them leaving we are around 120," the monitor said. "We need more monitors of course and more will come soon to replace those who left."

Monitors from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain left the Syrian capital and those from other Gulf states were expected to leave the Syrian capital soon.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who heads the League's committee on Syria, wrote jointly to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon setting out the plan for a political solution in Syria.

The letter asks for a "joint meeting between them in the UN headquarters to inform the Security Council about developments and obtain the support of the Council for this plan," a League statement said.

Several diplomats at the United Nations said France and Britain were working with Qatar and other Arab delegations on a new draft resolution supporting the Arab League plan.

The Arab League call for Assad to step down will raise pressure on Russia to explain why it is still blocking UN action to stop the bloodshed in Syria, where Moscow has called for a dialogue.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Russia, which holds a veto in the UN Security Council, remained opposed to sanctions on Syria and reiterated its opposition to military intervention.

Syrian opposition groups have accused the observers mission, which began on Dec. 26, of giving Assad diplomatic cover to pursue a crackdown on protesters and rebels in which more than 5,000 people have been killed since March, by a UN tally.

The opposition Local Coordination Committees reported 68 deaths of civilians and army deserters on Tuesday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the toll at 35.

The Observatory said Syrian soldiers killed three people on Wednesday in Damascus province and tanks were surrounding one village and firing on another. It also said army deserters clashed with soldiers in Idlib province, disabling three armoured vehicles and killing or wounding six soldiers.

The government says it is fighting foreign-backed Islamist "terrorists" who have killed 2,000 soldiers and police. The state news agency SANA said 16 more were buried on Tuesday.

The revolt in Syria was inspired by others that have toppled three autocratic Arab leaders over the past year and the bloodletting has battered Assad's standing in the world.

The Arab League has suspended Syria's membership and Iran, at loggerheads with world powers over its disputed nuclear ambitions, is among Assad's few remaining allies.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem wrote to the Arab League accepting an extension of the monitoring mission, even as he scornfully rejected the 22-member body's call for Assad to hand power to his deputy and allow a new unity government to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections.