CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers agreed on Sunday to back the Syrian opposition and called for a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping mission in Syria, after their meeting in Cairo on Sunday.
They also announced the end of a controversial observer mission that was sent to monitor violence in the conflict-stricken country.
“How long will we stay as onlookers to what is happening to the brotherly Syrian people, and how much longer will we grant the Syrian regime one period after another so it can commit more massacres against its people?” Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal asked ministers at the start of the Arab League session.
“At our meeting today I call for decisive measures, after the failure of the half-solutions,” he said. “The Arab League should ... open all channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and give all forms of support to it.”
A resolution approved by Arab League ministers meeting in Cairo called for "opening communication channels with the Syrian opposition and providing all forms of political and material support to it.” It also urged the Syrian opposition to unite.
The resolution solidifies Assad's ostracism among his Arab neighbors and will add to diplomatic pressure on Russia and China, which vetoed UN action on Syria on Feb. 4, to lift their objections and allow the world body to act.
It said violence against civilians in Syria had violated international law and that perpetrators deserved punishment. It scrapped an Arab League monitoring mission.
The resolution did not make clear whether the proposed joint UN-Arab peacekeeping force would involve armed troops, as in previous UN missions.
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