Arab leaders gathered at a summit in Baghdad, Iraq, today to press Damascus for rapid implementation of a peace plan that President Bashar al-Assad has said he can accept.
Arab leaders, who appear to have backed away from their call on Dr Assad to step aside and hand over to a deputy, remain split over how to deal with the violence. Pre-empting the summit, Syria said yesterday it would reject any initiatives from the Arab League, which suspended Syria in November, and said it would deal only with individual Arab states.
In Istanbul, Syrian opposition representatives met to try to settle internal disputes before the arrival of Western foreign ministers for a "Friends of Syria" conference on Sunday to map out where the year-old uprising is heading.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, also attending the meeting in Baghdad, has said Dr Assad's acceptance of the Annan deal, which has met with strong scepticism in the West, "is an important initial step that could bring an end to the violence". He urged Dr Assad to "put those commitments into immediate effect".
US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said yesterday Dr Assad "has not taken the necessary steps to implement" the peace plan of former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, now special Syria envoy for the UN and Arab League.
Syria's major-power backers Russia and China have inched up the pressure on Dr Assad by endorsing the Annan plan, with the unspoken implication that if he fails to act on it, they may be prepared to back action by the UN Security Council.
But Russia is also pressing the opposition Syrian National Council to formally accept the Annan proposals, which do not meet their demand that the Syrian leader step down immediately.
Sunni powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar have led the push to isolate Syria, including suggests for arming Syria's opposition, but non-Gulf Arab states such as Algeria and Shia-led Iraq urge more caution, fearing that toppling Dr Assad could spark sectarian violence.
Mr Annan's six-point plan calls for the withdrawal of heavy weapons and troops from population centres, humanitarian assistance, the release of prisoners and free movement and access for journalists.Diplomats say one of his ideas is for a UN observer mission to monitor any eventual ceasefire, a mechanism likely to require a UN Security Council mandate.
An Arab League mission last year failed to make any difference to the crisis.
The United Nations says Dr Assad's forces have killed 9,000 people. Damascus blames foreign-backed terrorists for the violence and says 3,000 soldiers and police have been killed.
As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to visit Saudi Arabia and later Turkey to consult Gulf states and promote unity in Syrian opposition ranks, there was little sign that President Barack Obama's administration is ready to deviate from its hands-off approach.
Unless opposition splits are healed, there is little chance that Dr Assad's challengers can oust him without a military intervention the West clearly does not want.
Reuters