Time to end Syrian unrest

THE Arab League mission to Syria has failed to bring in any tangible improvement in the situation. In fact, the 10-month-old crackdown on popular uprising has increased with daily reports of escalation in violence.

The reason why the Arab League mission did not make any impact was that after weeks of haggling, Syria allowed in monitors on its terms. Under the agreement, the Syrian government is also required to permit peaceful protests, enter into dialogue with the opposition, and allow free access to Arab and international media. None of these conditions have been met. The Syrian opposition alleges that the monitors are unprofessional and are being misled by the Syrian regime.

Mohammed al-Dabi, the Sudanese general in charge of the mission, is going to brief a crucial meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, which will decide whether the mission should continue, be reinforced, or admit failure and seek punitive action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad by the UN Security Council.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani has openly advocated referring the issue to the UN Security Council because he feels that if the mission has failed to stop the killings then having monitors or not is the same.

Till now, the Security Council has not passed a resolution on the violence, which the UN claims has left more than 5,000 dead. The Security Council is supposed to take up the Syrian issue this week but opponents of UN action, led by Russia, are trying to switch the debate to Libya. The important question is how to stop this danse macabre and this can be achieved through twin means of reinforcing the Arab League mission and the Security Council, with the support of Arab nations, Russia and China, taking measures like no-fly zones and safe areas. It's the duty of Russia and China to join the international community to end the bloodshed in Syria.