Arab League urges Syria to remove tanks from streets

DOHA, Qatar - A proposed Arab League plan to end months of bloodshed in Syria includes a demand to withdraw tanks from the streets, the head of the pan-Arab group Nabil al-Arabi said on Monday.

"The Arab proposal to Syria calls for withdrawing tanks and all military vehicles to bring an immediate end to the violence and give assurances to the Syrian street," Arabi said in the Qatari capital Doha.

The Arab League was on Monday awaiting a response from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to its plan which, Arabi said, also calls for a dialogue to take place in Cairo between Syrian officials and opposition figures.

Arabi's statements came after an overnight meeting on Sunday between a group of Arab foreign ministers and their Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Doha that was convened to address fears that unchecked Syrian bloodshed could further inflame the Arab world.

"The entire region is at risk of a massive storm," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said after Sunday's three-hour meeting.

"What is required of Syria ... are concrete steps that could avoid what happened to other countries," he said.

At an emergency session in Cairo on Oct 16, the 22-member organization called for "national dialogue" between the government and opposition by the end of October to help stop the violence and avoid "foreign intervention" in Syria.

Chinese Middle East envoy Wu Sike called on the Syrian government to act on its pledge to introduce political reforms and resolve differences in the country through dialogue, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Monday.

Wu, who visited Syria from Oct 26 to 28, met Muallem and Vice-President Farouq al-Sharaa.

The Chinese envoy said that the international community should respect Syria's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and work to ensure the easing of tensions in the country, in order to maintain peace and stability in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out the possibility of a no-fly zone for Syria, in remarks to an AFP correspondent as he traveled on Monday to Tripoli to mark the end of the alliance's air war in Libya.

"It's totally ruled out. We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria," Rasmussen said when asked if there was a possibility NATO would now spearhead a no-fly zone in Syria.

Rasmussen landed unannounced in Tripoli hours before NATO's mission in Libya was due to end officially, seven months after Western powers fired the first barrage of missiles against Muammar Gadhafi's forces in an air war that played a major role in ousting him.

"We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria," he insisted, saying the conditions there were different to those in Libya.

Syrian anti-government activists have called on the international community to impose a no-fly zone on Syria to protect civilians and encourage army deserters opposed to the rule of President al-Assad.

AFP-China Daily