Syria accuses Arab League of ‘internationalising’ crisis

Arab diplomats on Thursday had said the League would ask the United Nations to contribute observers to an international mission that Syria is refusing to admit to the country.

“What we understand by this latest Arab League decision is a tacit green light for the internationalisation of the situation in Syria and to meddle in its domestic affairs,” Muallem said in a letter quoted by the state-run SANA news agency.

Muallem said the call by the Arab League to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was an invitation ‘for foreign intervention (in Syria) instead of a call to avoid one’.

He complained of contradictions in the Arab League position that on the one hand “talks of respecting Syrian sovereignty and avoiding foreign intervention while on the other calls on the UN secretary-general”.

Muallem said it was ‘impossible that the team (of observers) carry out its mission without coordination with the Syrian side’ and said the Arab League was mistaken not to include Syria in its appeal to the UN.

The minister also said several communications sent from Syria to the Arab League asking for details on decisions taken since early November were left unanswered.

Muallem said he was ‘confident that the all Arab countries are against a foreign intervention into the affairs of Arab countries and that we hope that the Arab League will make an announcement confirming that position’.