Exit Dabi, enter multinational observers for Syria?

Gen. al-Dhabi (photo from 25Jan-News.com)

Sudan’s controversial spymaster Mohammed al-Dabi has resigned as head of the Arab League observer mission to Syria.

The Arab League suspended observer work in Syria on January 28, citing mounting violence by President Bashar Assad's forces in key protest cities. The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) withdrew their observers from the mission completely.

The observers were tasked with determining whether Syria was complying with the Arab League peace plan from November that called on the Assad regime to return military forces to barracks, release political prisoners and begin a dialogue with the opposition.

The Arab League Council of Foreign Ministers, meeting later today in Cairo, will reportedly elect to restructure the mission altogether, raising the number of monitors to about 3,000 from under 200.

The inclination is to include an international component in the restructured mission by way of enrolling monitors from Arab, Islamic and foreign countries. The new mission would reportedly remain under Arab League command but be better equipped with body armor, reinforced vehicles and state-of-the-art communications gear.

It is doubtful if Damascus and Moscow would agree to a non-Arab observer component in Syria.

Tariq Alhomayed, editor of Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, says the Arab foreign ministers should focus on three steps at their Cairo meting today: the Syrian regime’s expulsion from the Arab League, recognition of the opposition’s Syrian National Council and jump-starting the “Friends of Syria” coalition.

“Highlights of the Syria observers’ report”

Arab observers in Syria (photo from Naharnet.com)

Lebanese daily an-Nahar publishes this morning what it claims to be the gist of the impending report to the Arab League on its observer mission to Syria.

The report by the mission's head, Sudanese Gen. Mohammed al-Dabi, will be discussed later today in Cairo by the League's Syria panel before the Arab Council of Foreign Ministers decides the mission's fate on Sunday.

Following are the highlights of Dabi's report according to an-Nahar:

• The observers determined that Arab satellite TV news networks are “adequately” represented on the ground by the likes of (Saudi) Alarabiya, (Qatar’s) Aljazeera, (the UAE’s) Dubai, (Lebanese Hezbollah’s) al-Manar and (Iranian) Alalam.
• There are also correspondents for the BBC, Algerian, German and Austrian television and for Turkish and British newspapers.
• Syria proved “responsive” to the mission after the observer’s deployment. The opposition welcomed the observers, who also set citizens’ minds at rest.
• A lone gunman flouted protocol provisions and fired at the observers and citizens.
• The observers were subjected to a hostile media campaign described as “vicious and unprecedented.” This leads Dabi to believe there are sides seeking to frustrate the observer mission.
• The report lists some breakthroughs by the mission, including the release (by the government) of a “not-insignificant” number of detainees and the withdrawal (by the army) of heavy armor and weapons from streets.
• Dabi recognizes the observers were unable to stop the violence. He will put a request for armored vehicles and telecommunications equipment for his team.
• Dabi will also enquire about purported mass defections of Syrian army regulars, having previously told the ministerial panel defections have so far been limited to new conscripts.

“Fasten your seatbelts for 2012”

Abdul Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of Saudi AlArabiya TV, believes that after the 2011 Arab Spring unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, the year 2012 will prove to be tough for all Arab countries. Consequently, he writes for the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, “All of us -- the countries rocked by revolts and the countries fearful of revolts – need to tightly fasten our seatbelts because 2012, I think, will prove to be the most hazardous of all.”

Where Syria is concerned, Qatar’s Aljazeera portal says there was no let-up in violence there on Monday, when security forces killed 24 civilians in the Damascus suburbs, Homs and Hama.

But Arab print and electronic media have different readings of Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby’s take on the League’s observer mission in Syria.

Elaraby, speaking at a news conference in Cairo on Monday, said persistent shooting in Syria must cease, warning that snipers remain a threat. “Yes, there is still shooting and, yes, there are still snipers,” he said. But heavy weapons, including tanks and artillery, have been removed from residential areas. Elaraby also vouched for Sudanese Gen. M. al-Dabi, the controversial head of the monitoring team.

A sample of Syrian press headlines on Elaraby’s remarks:

Al-Watan – “Elaraby confirms the end of armed presence in cities and the release of 3,484 detainees”

Al-Baath – “Elaraby: Some criticisms are misplaced”

Tishreen – “Elaraby: Mission is making progress and the media need not prejudge”

Champress – “Elaraby: Damascus gave free access to 130 media outlets and barred three TV networks” (presumably Aljazeera, AlArabiya and France24).

Saudi Alawsat, however, prefers to underscore on its front page the following remark by the Arab League secretary-general: “We were asking for the Palestinians’ protection, we’re now asking for the Syrians’ protection.”

In his leader comment, Alawsat’s chief editor Tariq Alhomayed sounds unconvinced by Elaraby’s words. He still wants Gen. al-Dabi replaced and the mission of “Arab League spectators” restructured “with the help of a ranking international organization and a number of competent and respectable figures.”

Better still, Alhomayed writes, “it’s time to start handing over the Syria file to the UN Security Council – not necessarily by the Arab League, but by a distinct committee comprising Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Turkey and whoever else wants to put an end to the killings in Syria. The committee would lobby Russia, the U.S. and Europe for a UN resolution providing the Syrians with buffer and no-fly zones.”

Abdelbari Atwan, publisher/editor of the pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi, says Arab governments have only themselves to blame for choosing al-Dabi, an army general accused of overlooking atrocities during the Darfur genocide, to lead the Syria observer mission.

“Gen. al-Dabi is not a Swede. Like most of his fellow Arab army generals, he belongs to institutions that usurped power through military coups. He was not an American or international nominee to the post. His selection was purely Arab and was made by a task force of foreign ministers belonging to the Arab League. If choosing him was wrong, the blame should not fall on him or his country, but on those who named him for the job in the first place,” Atwan suggests.

Eye-opening reads:

Syrian assassinated in Germany

Banking fallout from Arab Spring

Eye-opening videos:

Arab League observer hugs Syrian child on New Year’s Day

Tanks crush protesters’ mopeds in Idlib