BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Syria said today it had reached agreement with an Arab League committee tasked with finding a way to end seven months of unrest and starting a dialogue between President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents.
State media reported “agreement regarding a final document on the situation in Syria”, without giving details, saying an official announcement would be made at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo today.
But a senior Arab League official said the organisation was still awaiting a response from Damascus to proposals for halting the bloodshed, which activists said continued today with two civilians shot dead by Assad’s forces in Homs and two soldiers killed by army deserters in an ambush.
One activist said gunmen dragged nine people, all of them from Assad’s minority Alawite sect, from a bus on a road between the cities of Homs and Hama, and killed them.
The United Nations says more than 3,000 people have been killed in Assad’s crackdown on an uprising which erupted in March against his rule, inspired by revolutions which have toppled three Arab leaders this year.
Most Syrian opposition figures reject dialogue with authorities while the violence continues, and one activist said he feared any agreement in Cairo would give Assad a green light to continue his military campaign to crush dissent.
The United States, which has imposed sanctions on Syria’s oil industry and key state businesses in response to Assad’s crackdown, said that if Syria’s accepted and implemented the Arab League’s proposals it would be “very welcome”.
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