AFP, Cairo, 2 Nov 2011 – Syria on Wednesday fully accepted an Arab League plan to end nearly eight months of bloodshed, a League official said, although the UN chief warned that the regime still has to implement the deal as agreed.
The agreement announced at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo came amid huge pressure on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, even from traditional allies such as China, to end weeks of prevarication and sign up to the deal drawn up by the pan-Arab bloc.
‘The Syrian delegation accepted the Arab League plan without reservations and in its entirety,’ the League official said.
The peace plan agreed to by Syria, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, provides for a ‘complete halt to the violence to protect civilians.’
More than 3,000 people have died in the government’s bloody crackdown on the unprecedented protests against Assad’s rule which broke out in mid-March, according to UN figures.
The blueprint also calls for the ‘release of people detained as a result of the recent events, the withdrawal of forces from towns and districts where there have been armed clashes, and the granting of access to the Arab League, and Arab and international media