Arab League chief agrees reforms with Syrian leader

ARAB LEAGUE secretary general Nabil al-Arabi has announced that agreement has been reached with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to accelerate reforms with the objective of ending six months of civil unrest.

Following a meeting between the two men in Damascus, Mr Arabi said on Saturday that steps for implementing planned reforms and a timetable had been arranged so that Syrian citizens could feel a new stage had been reached.

As the means to achieving this objective, Mr Arabi said: “I focused on the importance of an open national dialogue that encompasses all personalities . . . [and] in which the Arab League plays a major role.”

He said the aim would be “national reconciliation”.

Although details of a 13-point plan drafted by the league have not been made public, leaks to the press suggest that the organisation has called for withdrawal of troops and tanks from restive towns and cities and the release of prisoners said to number 12,000 since unrest began.

The league seeks a three-year transition to a multiparty system of governance in Syria and proposes a presidential election in 2014.

Mr Arabi said he would report to Arab foreign ministers due to meet in Cairo today where Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would address the gathering. Mr Erdogan is a former ally of Dr Assad and has criticised the Syrian leader’s handling of the revolt while also trying to mediate.

While Mr Arabi was meeting Dr Assad, 18 deaths were reported by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in military operations in the central city of Homs, the northern province of Idlib, restive Damascus suburbs and Deraa.

Meanwhile, French foreign minister Alain Juppé has described as a “scandal” Russia’s refusal to support a UN Security Council resolution on Syria’s use of force. He also seemed to dismiss the league effort: “We think the regime has lost its legitimacy, that it is too late to implement . . . reform.”