An Arab League panel yesterday recommended that the body extend its heavily criticised observer mission to unrest-swept Syria, as activists said army defectors briefly overran a protest hub near Damascus.
“Yes, that’s what is going to be recommended to the plenary session,” a League official said after the panel met behind closed doors to hear a report on the mission ahead of a decisive meeting yesterday of the bloc’s foreign ministers.
The Cairo meeting was briefed on the first month of the monitoring mission by its chief, General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi of Sudan.
Mr Dabi wants his mandate to be strengthened, not scrapped, another League official said earlier. In a statement late on Saturday, the general said the mission’s mandate was “to verify that the Syrian government has implemented the terms of an Arab League plan to solve the crisis, not to stop the bloodshed and violence.”
But the opposition Syrian National Council, which been lobbying in Cairo for UN intervention, said it would reveal “a counter-report” later on Sunday to try to discredit Mr Dabi’s account.
The monitoring mission was expected to be extended by a month, and with double the number of observers to around 300.
The Dabi report blames both sides, the government and opposition, for the bloodshed.