Arab League leaders are trying to increase the pressure on Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, while their envoy to Syria warned "the
specter of all-out war" in Syria grows by the day.
Arab League members met Saturday in Doha for an emergency session with
United Nations and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
Annan called on President Assad to take "bold and visible steps
immediately" to implement his six-point cease-fire plan. But the former
U.N. secretary-general admitted recent atrocities show the conflict is
quickly spiraling out of control.
"The massacres of children, women and men in al-Houla is a terrible
crime. Worst of all, it is one of many atrocities to have taken place,"
Ban Ki-moon said.
Annan also warned the crisis in Syria could spread. Qatari Prime
Minister Sheik Hamid bin Jassim al-Thani echoed Annan's concerns, saying
"no country is fortified enough to avoid the fallout from the
deteriorating situation in Syria." He promised the Arab League would
work to make sure the Syrian people realize their aspirations.
US reaction
Also Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called her
Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss the situation in Syria. A
State Department official said Clinton's message to Lavrov was : "We
have got to start working together to help the Syrians with Syria's
political transition strategy. U.S. and Russian officials should engage
diplomatically to come up with ideas in Moscow, Washington, New York and
whenever we need to."
The League is calling for the U.N. Security Council to replace the
almost 300 monitors it has in Syria now with peacekeepers capable of
preventing clashes. But already, the fighting has spread.
More violence
Clashes broke out late Friday across the Syrian border in the northern
Lebanese port city of Tripoli. Lebanese officials said Saturday the
fighting between pro-Assad and anti-Assad militiamen in the Bab al-Tebbaneh
and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods had killed at least nine people,
including civilians, while injuring more than 30.
One fighter blamed the violence on Assad's supporters.
"They are targeting us because we are supporting the Syrian revolution
and we want to defend our children," he said.
Violence also gripped Syria's Homs province for yet another day. Amateur
video posted on the Internet showed what was described as shellfire
slamming into buildings in Bab al-Sebaa. Other video showed a bomb blast
targeting Syrian soldiers who were escorting U.N. observers in Erbin.
Foreign intervention
Meanwhile, calls for foreign intervention are mounting.
From Qatar, the head of the largest Syrian exile opposition group called
on Arab countries to intervene. Syrian National Council leader Burhan
Ghalioun said he would welcome Arab military action to stop attacks on
pro-democracy activists and civilians.
Pressure is also increasing on the United States and other Western
nations to act.
Middle
East analyst Aaron David Miller of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson
Center tells VOA some sort of action may be inevitable.
"I just don't see how the United States is going to be able to continue
to resist the pressures that have been mounting for some kind of
military action," Miller said.
A former foreign-policy adviser to senior U.S. officials, Miller, says a
lasting peace will be difficult even if outside forces do go into Syria.
"It's as bad and as complex an internal situation as the so-called Arab
Spring, Arab Winter has yet produced," he noted.
Some analysts believe resolution of the Syrian crisis will require some
sort of deal that allows President Bashar al-Assad to walk away with his
freedom. However, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay,
speaking in Brussels, warned against what she described as expedient
actions.
