Arab League rejects Syria’s request to amend plans for monitors

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Arab League rejected a request by Damascus to amend plans for a 500-strong monitoring mission to Syria, and President Bashar al Assad said he would not bow to international pressure to stop a crackdown against protesters.

Reuters reports that within hours of Assad ignoring a deadline to halt the bloody crackdown, residents said two rocket-propelled grenades hit a major ruling party building in Damascus on Sunday, November 20, the first such reported attack by insurgents inside the capital.

Confronted since March by street demonstrations against 41 years of rule by his family, Assad said he had no choice but to pursue his crackdown on unrest because his foes were armed.

“The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue. Syria will not bow down,” he told Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper.

The Arab League, alarmed at the mounting death toll in Syria, rejected Damascus’s request to alter a plan for the fact-finding mission, which would include military personnel and human rights experts.

“The additions requested by the Syrian counterpart affect the heart of the protocol and fundamentally change the nature of the mission,” Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said in a letter to the Syrian government.

Syria’s Foreign Minister Walidal Moualem said the plan as it stood compromised the country’s sovereignty but Damascus had not rejected the mission

Moualem said the proposed mission had “pervasive jurisdiction that reaches the level of … violating Syrian sovereignty” and that he would send the Arab League a letter with questions about its role.

“We will reply to the Arab League secretary general by responsibly presenting a number of queries,” he told a televised news conference in the Syrian capital.