BICOM

Syria yesterday agreed to an Arab League plan to send foreign monitors into the country, bowing to growing international pressure to end its crackdown on a nine-month uprising. The Arab League plan calls for removing Syrian forces and heavy weapons from city streets, starting talks with opposition leaders and allowing human rights workers and journalists into the country, along with observers from Arab League countries.

President Bashar Assad’s regime accepted the proposal after Arab leaders warned they would turn to the UN Security Council to try to end the crackdown that the UN says has killed at least 5,000 people since March. The UN General Assembly yesterday condemned human rights violations by Assad’s government, calling for an immediate end to violence and implementation of the Arab League plan “without further delay.”

Pressure from Syria’s longtime ally Russia also clearly played a role in the decision to allow observers. Moscow last week released a draft resolution at the Security Council that called on the Syrian parties to end violence and start talks, as well as supporting the Arab league plan. Russia had previously blocked any action at the Security Council.

Syrian human rights organisations as well as the US, are skeptical that the regime will allow full, unrestricted access to trouble spots. Syrian opposition groups also contend that the acceptance of monitors is likely just a stalling tactic to give the regime much-needed breathing room, as evidence grows of increasing defections from Assad’s armed forces.