The Syrian government has told the Arab League that its team of observers can remain in the country for another month, just hours after publicly berating the monitoring mission as part of an international conspiracy against Syria.

The six wealthy members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have already withdrawn their observers from the team, saying they did not believe their recommendations would be taken seriously in Damascus. League officials said this departure of 52 montiors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates would leave a team of about 110 observers on the ground.

The Arab League had also warned Syria that the remaining monitors would be confined to their base unless the government officially endorsed their extended stay.

"Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem sent a letter tonight to the secretary general of the Arab League [Nabil al-Arabi] informing him of the Syrian government's agreement to extend the observer mission for one month, from January 24 until February 23, 2012," a government statement carried by state news agency SANA said.

The observers were deployed to the country in a bid to attain more concrete information about 10 months of public protests against the Syrian regime, often met with violent responses from security forces. The UN estimates that over 5,000 people have been killed since the unrest flared up in March 2011.

"Clear signal" demanded

Shortly before sending his approval to the Arab League, al Moallem had held a public press conference in which he condemned the observers and their findings as part of a foreign conspiracy against Syria.

"We do not want Arab solutions," the foreign minister concluded, saying that the team had intentionally made suggestions that would be unacceptable for Damascus. The monitors on Sunday recommended forming a temporary national unity government and called on President Bashar al-Assad to hand over all power to his deputy, who could then coordinate with the new government until fresh elections could be held.

At the UN headquarters in New York, Western leaders again sought a tough Security Council stance on Syria at a Tuesday meeting. German ambassador to the UN Peter Wittig called for a strong signal supporting the Arab League's efforts to halt the violence.

"The council should condemn the continued, systematic violations of human rights, the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities, and demand an immediate end to all violence," Wittig said during a council meeting.

US and UK ambassadors issued similar statements, also alluding to the difficulty of securing the support of Russia and China, who both opposed a resolution condemning the crackdown submitted last October.

On Wednesday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, repeated that his country was opposed to sanctions against Syria, but said Russia was open to "constructive proposals" for changes to a resolution it had proposed at the UN in which both sides were blamed for the violence.

Author: Mark Hallam (AFP, AP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton