BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Syria agreed on Monday to let Arab states monitor its compliance with an Arab League peace agreement aimed at stopping violence, but human rights activists said more than 70 people had been killed during the day.
The government of President Bashar al-Assad gave its agreement after facing sanctions and threats from the Arab League that it would take the issue to the United Nations Security Council.
The opposition dismissed the agreement as a new stalling tactic and called instead for military intervention to stop Syria’s crackdown on a nine-month old anti-government protest movement.
Damascus said it was prompted to ink a deal on advice from Russia, a powerful ally that has shown signs of losing patience. Moscow praised the deal as an opportunity for stability.
The Arab League said it was not ready to lift economic sanctions aimed at pressuring Syria to let in monitors, but said an advance party would reach Damascus this week.
It would prepare a mission to monitor compliance with an agreement that calls for troops to withdraw from cities where protests have been held, to free political prisoners and to open a dialogue with opponents, most of whom are set on following the example of Egypt and others in ending decades of one-man rule.
Insisting that Syria had not been forced into submission, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said that he had won several unspecified modifications before signing the deal, which initially allows in observers for one month.
“The Arab League delegation’s reports will be sent to me and the League’s secretary-general at the same time, and he and I will discuss them before any other action is taken,” the foreign minister said. “That is the text after Syria’s modifications.”
The remarks were broadcast on Syrian television. Most foreign media have been barred from Syria this year.
“POINT OF NO RETURN”
While many Arab League rulers take little more heed of public opinion than Assad, they are anxious to calm the situation in Syria and avoid civil war that could unsettle a region already riven by rivalries between non-Arab Shi’ite power Iran and Sunni Arab heavyweights like Saudi Arabia.
Iran, Syria’s’ key backer, said the agreement to let in observers from the Arab League was “acceptable,” if not ideal.
Analysts said the Arab deal would do little to change Syria’s spiraling bloodshed, as peaceful protests become overshadowed by pockets of armed insurgency, but said it showed that Syria felt dogged by international pressure and sanctions.
“The international and regional isolation is beginning to have an impact on their thinking,” said Julien Barnes-Dacey, of Control Risks in London.
“But a point of no return has been passed by both protesters and authorities. They are not going to withdraw (from protest centers) and we are not going to see the end of deaths.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 60 army deserters were shot dead by machinegun fire as they tried to flee their base, citing accounts from wounded survivors. It counted 13 protesters shot dead around Syria by security forces.
The British-based observatory also said three soldiers died fighting with armed rebels backing the opposition in Idlib province, while state news agency SANA said security forces there killed at least one and wounded several “terrorists.”
Independent opposition figure, Samir Aita argued that the plan could be a “turning point” that could ultimately stem violence and rally participation.
“When the observers are there, there can be peaceful demonstrations and the uprising can get back in the major cities to its peaceful civic stand.”
Syria broadly agreed last month to the Arab League initiative to defuse a violent confrontation that has left more than 5,000 people dead. Damascus reports losing over 1,100 of its security forces to foreign-backed “armed terrorist gangs.”
OPPOSITION CALLS FOR FORCE
After Syria balked at signing the protocol on monitors last month, Arab foreign ministers voted to impose sanctions on Damascus and threatened last week to take their proposal to the Security Council – a move that could expose Damascus to wider international action.
The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council criticized Monday’s agreement, which Damascus said would allow protesters into hotspots under Syrian protection. The opposition called for deterrent forces to intervene.
“Syria’s signature of the Arab League agreement is a lie aimed at winning time and preventing the League from resorting to the United Nations,” Burhan Ghalioun told reporters in Tunisia. “We need to use force — even in a limited way — or for Arab defense forces to respond.”
Syria’s Moualem said Damascus agreed to sign the deal on the advice of Russia, its long-time ally and arms supplier.
Moscow took a step closer to the Western position last Thursday with a surprise draft resolution at the United Nations which stepped up its criticism of the bloodshed in Syria.
Western countries complained the text was still too weak but the move may offer more opportunity for international measures, although foreign powers deny plans for intervention. Syria, a faultline of Arab-Israeli conflict and regional sectarian tensions, is a far riskier place to intervene than sparsely populated Libya in North Africa.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said sanctions against Syria had not been lifted, but said an Arab foreign ministers meeting planned later this week to discuss action against Damascus had been “postponed indefinitely.”
Moualem told journalists that Syria had not requested and end to the sanctions.
“If they think the sanctions will affect Syrian’s resistance then they are dreaming, and we won’t beg anyone,” he said
But some observers said there was still little chance that the Assad family’s 41-year rule would survive.
“The situation in Syria is irreversible,” said analyst Nadim Shadi from Chatham House in London. “There is no way any external actors can change it, or that the regime can regain its power.”
(Additional reporting by Dominic Evans and Laila Bassam in Beirut, Sherine El Madany and Ayman Samir in Cairo and Tarek Amara in Tunis; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
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