Arab League suspends mission in Syria

January 29, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

CAIRO, Egypt

The Arab League suspended its Syria observation mission Saturday, saying it was too dangerous to continue, as battles between security and opposition forces raged just outside the capital, Damascus.

The Arab League has joined the United States and other powers in calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign, but the embattled leader shows no signs of budging as a 10-month revolt pushes the country to the brink of civil war.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement that he was suspending the mission, “given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence.” A final decision about whether the mission will end is expected within days.

Syrian state television said the regime “regrets and is surprised” by the suspension, news wires reported.

The Arab League sent teams of monitors to Syria to observe the implementation of an Arab-brokered peace plan that virtually all parties had deemed dead on arrival. Human-rights groups criticized the mission chief’s checkered past in Sudan, some monitors quit in protest of the regime’s stage-managing of their tours and protesters complained that the Arab League was only buying time for Assad.