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Syria “totally rejects ” a call by the Arab League
Foreign ministers of Arab countries meeting in Cairo have called on President Assad to put an “immediate” end to bloodshed. The Arab League has urged Damascus to start dialogue with the people; only then will the League send the fact-finding mission requested by the Syrian government.
Damascus (AsiaNews/Agency) –Syria's representative to the Arab League, together with the representative of Lebanon, has said that Damascus and Beirut “totally reject” a statement issued at the end of a recent Meeting of Arab League foreign ministers. The statement urged the Syrian government to put an 'immediate' end to the bloody repression taking place in that country. Moreover the Arab League has warned Damascus that until it replaces arms with dialogue, it will not send the fact-finding Mission requested by the Assad government.
On Saturday 10 September Arab League secretary Nabil al-Arabi went to Damascus to meet the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The secretary general said he and the President agreed on a series of measures which he presented to the Foreign Ministers meeting in Cairo. The foreign minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, said Syria must stop its “killing machine” and pull its army out of the cities.
“We cannot accept this killing machine- he said- "We cannot allow people to be killed in this way. The army must be withdrawn from inside the cities so that we can start talking about a dialogue between the people and the government”. According to Syrian activist sources yesterday there were fresh raids by security forces around Damascus, near Homs and in Deir ez-Zor, in the far east of the country.