Syria attacks League plan for transfer of power from Assad

SYRIA HAS denounced an Arab League plan for the transfer of power from President Bashar al-Assad to a multiparty regime.

Damascus yesterday accused the league of flagrant interference and of involvement in a plot against Syria.

The proposal calls for negotiations between the government and opposition, formation of a national unity administration within two months, and the transfer of power from Dr Assad to one of his deputies ahead of elections.

The opposition is divided over the proposal and it was dismissed by the Syria-based local committees co-ordinating anti-regime protests as unrealistic. Hassan Abdul-Azim, head of the Syrian-based National Co-ordination Committee, said the plan is “an advanced step as the . . . league has started dealing with matters more seriously”.

The coalition of exiles, the Syrian National Council, welcomed the plan but rejected negotiations with Dr Assad. Council spokesman Omar Idlibi said the plan did not go far enough. The council has called for a no-fly zone, safe havens and an investigation of the regime’s crackdown by the International Criminal Court.

The EU backed the plan and extended sanctions against the regime by adding 22 individuals and eight firms to the blacklist.

Saudi Arabia has announced its intention to pull out its monitors from the league’s team of 165. Other gulf countries were expected to follow suit, but Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain, three Saudi gulf allies facing unrest, have expressed reluctance to do so since withdrawal would undermine the mission.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s first freely elected parliament held its inaugural session and voted as its speaker Saad el-Katani, former sec retary general of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The party, which won nearly half the seats in the assembly, is said to have negotiated a deal with the ruling military council to give members of the armed forces immunity from prosecution.