(already subscribe? log in).

Syrian opposition requests UN action

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

December 26, 2011

BEIRUT - Syria’s top opposition leader called on the Arab League yesterday to bring the UN into the effort to stop the regime’s bloody crackdown on dissent as security forces pressed ahead with raids and arrests and killed at least seven more people.

Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based leader of the Syrian National Council, made the plea as Arab League officials were setting up teams of monitors as part of their plan aimed at ending nine months of turmoil that the UN says has killed more than 5,000 people.

Opposition groups say the Arab League is not strong enough to resolve the crisis, which is escalating beyond mass demonstrations into armed clashes between military defectors and security forces.

“I call upon the Arab League to ask the Security Council to adopt its plan in order to increase possibilities of its success and avoid giving the regime an opportunity not to carry out its obligations,’’ Ghalioun said in a televised speech marking Christmas. The opposition council “holds the international community to its responsibilities and asks them to use all available means to put an end to the tragedies experienced by the Syrian people,’’ he added.

The Arab League has begun sending observers into Syria to monitor compliance with its plan to end to the crackdown on political opponents. The opposition has accused President Bashar Assad of agreeing to the plan to forestall more international sanctions.