Arab League claims progress in Syria talks

Seria-(MMedia)-Nabil el-Araby, the head of the Arab League, says he has reached an “agreement on reforms” in Syria during talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

El-Araby met the president and other senior officials in Damascus on Saturday.

“We have reached agreement on steps to carry out the reforms, [and] the elements will be submitted to the council of the Arab League,” which meets in Cairo on Monday, El-Araby said after the meeting.

El-Araby told journalists in Egypt that he had urged Assad to “speed up reform plans through a timetable that will make every Syrian citizen feel that he has moved to a new stage”.

The state-run Syrian news agency SANA said el-Araby had “affirmed the Arab League’s rejection of all forms of foreign interference in Syrian internal affairs” and that the two leaders had agreed on “a number of practical steps for speeding up the reform process in Syria”.

According information leaked to the media earlier this week about el-Araby’s visit, he was to call for the withdrawal of troops and tanks from Syrian cities and towns and to push for elections to be held within three years.

El-Araby had originally been expected to travel to Damascus on Wednesday, but Arab diplomats said the visit was delayed at Syria’s request.

Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League urged Syria two weeks ago to end the months of violence “and resort to reason before it’s too late”.

Activists say el-Araby’s visit to Syria was long overdue. They also had been critical of the Arab League for remaining silent during the government’s crackdown on protesters, Al Jazeera’s Omar Al Saleh, reporting from neighbouring Jordan, said.

“It has been described by activists as an attempt by the Arab League to save the Syrian leadership,” he said.

Maakhir News In Suria