Syria to respond to Arab League deal today

Protestors holding a very big flag to support the Syrian regime in Deir Alzor   Damascus – Agencies Arab ministers will meet on Wednesday to evaluate the situation in Syria, Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency said. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi expects any Syrian response to an Arab League proposal to end the violence there to be given to the meeting, MENA said.
A senior Arab League official said the organisation was still awaiting a response from Damascus to proposals for halting the bloodshed, with activists saying the death toll in Homs has climbed to 18 today.
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 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that people Al Basateen have heard firing and five explosions since Wednesday morning.
The Syrian state media reported that an agreement was reached “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 on Wednesday
“The secretary general of the Arab League has not yet received Syria’s official response to the document submitted by the ministerial committee” to end the violence, Ben Helli said.
“As far as I know the Syrian delegation will give an official reply tomorrow (Wednesday) during the (extraordinary) meeting,” which the Arab League is to hold to discuss the violence in Syria, Ben Helli said.
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.
Omar Idlibi, a member of the grassroots Local Coordination Committee and member of the National Council, said the opposition wanted to see details of the agreement.
“We fear that this agreement is another attempt to give the regime a new chance to crush this revolution and kill more Syrians,” he said.
“It helps the Syrian regime to remain in power while the demands of the people are clear in terms of toppling the regime and its unsuitability even to lead a transitional period.”
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told Al Arabiya that referring the Syrian crimes to the ICC was up to the U.N. Security Council.
When asked by Al Arabiya, in an interview, about his responsibility towards the crimes committed against civilians and defected soldiers in Syria, Ocampo said: “You have to talk to the Security Council. The Council can or cannot refer the file to us. It is its decision. The responsibility here is on the Security Council, not mine.”
“I have probed the crimes committed in Libya and Darfur because the Security Council asked me to. Without the Council’s request, I have no liabilities to take any action, not even gathering information, nothing,” he said.
In another development on Tuesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, condemned Syria's crackdown on its opponents, saying Turkey would take steps against the Assad government.
"Killing one person is like killing the whole of humanity, but unfortunately there is an authority which is killing hundreds of people, whom I believe are martyrs," he said. "This is an authority based on power, not on the will of the people."
“The Syrian people will achieve the results of that glorious resistance,” he told a meeting of his AK Party in parliament. “The people of Syria will secure themselves their rights and freedoms.”
Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, whose country heads the ministerial committee, also said Assad must launch serious reforms if Syria is to avoid further violence. A Lebanese official with close ties to the Syrian government also said Syria had put forward its own proposals to the Arab League.
"The Syrian authorities want the opposition to drop weapons, the Arab states to end their funding for the weapons and the opposition, and an end to the media campaign against Syria," the official told Reuters news agency.
China, along with Russia, vetoed a Western-drafted resolution at the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 4 that would have threatened Assad’s regime with targeted sanctions if it continued its campaign against protesters.
“If it depends on us, I don’t think we will allow anything of that sort to be repeated,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, while on a visit to Abu Dhabi.
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan echoed him.
“We do not think that there is any party which is willing to internationalize this matter. At least we Arabs don’t,” he said, according to AFP.
The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said it fears for several journalists and bloggers in Syria who have vanished, with no response from authorities as to their fate.
Protesters in Syria have increasingly called for foreign intervention, although NATO has repeatedly said it has no plans for military action in Syria.
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.
Assad told Russian television on Sunday he would cooperate with the opposition, but in another interview he warned Western powers they would cause an “earthquake” in the Middle East if they intervened in Syria, after protesters demanded outside protection to stop the killing of civilians.
Syrian authorities blame militants who it says are armed and financed from abroad for the violence, saying they have killed 1,100 members of the security forces.