Syria Permits Observers, Arab League Rejects Regime’s Conditions

The Assad Regime conditionally accepted the Arab League’s demands to allow international observers into the country. Despite this conditional acceptance, the regime stated that they had amendments to the Arab League’s proposal including “that human rights activists be excluded from the observer mission and only civilians working for Arab governments take part.” These amendments to the international observer mission were rejected by the Arab League. Since the Assad regime had agreed to the Arab League’s initial plan to cease all violence against civilians and allow international observers into the country on November 2nd, “more than 370 people have been killed since then, say rights groups, in what appears to be the bloodiest month in the eight-month uprising.”

Yesterday, Foreign Policy published an article about Syria’s death toll since the uprising began. According to the article, if the current trend remains, “a whopping 800 people may lose their lives in Syria this month.” FP stated that data was compiled from the Violations Documenting Center in Syria and that “while different organizations’ data may vary slightly on a given day, the broad trends of the information are accurate, and provide a useful sense of how the revolt is evolving.”

Despite the death toll, Russia continues to stand in support of dialogue with President Bashar Al-Assad. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that “demands for Mr. Assad’s removal would destroy the [Arab League] initiative, which calls for dialogue between the Syrian government and its foes.”