AL Contributes to Annan’s Syria Plan

The international mediator Kofi Annan’s draft proposal on Syria transition will exclude President Bashar al-Assad, the league’s Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi was reported by Al Arabiya as saying on Saturday. 

Arabi said that the Arab group has also contributed to Annan’s draft. Al Arabiya reported that nine out of 11 countries have supported Annan’s proposal to exclude Assad. 

News of excluding Assad in a future Syrian government, however, doesn’t come as a surprise. On Friday, a U.N. diplomat told Al Arabiya that the international plan will likely exclude Assad, citing the draft plan by Annan which will be proposed at a conference in Geneva on Saturday.

The plan would exclude from government those “whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation,” he said.

Diplomats had earlier said this means Assad could be ruled out of the government. Opposition figures could also be kept out under the same formula, they stressed.

The conflict in Syria will only end when all sides are assured that there is a peaceful way towards a common future for all in Syria, the diplomat told Al Arabiya.

Meanwhile, ahead of the United Nations meeting in Geneva, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Saturday he was uncertain that world powers could reach a power transition deal to halt the bloodshed in Syria, as Russia and China remain opposed.

“We haven’t reached agreement in advance with Russia and China. That remains very difficult and whether it will be possible, I don’t know if this will be possible,” he told reporters arriving in Geneva.

Assad on Thursday dismissed the notion of any outside solution to the 16-month-old uprising against his rule.

“We will not accept any non-Syrian, non-national model, whether it comes from big countries or friendly countries. No one knows how to solve Syria’s problems as well as we do,” he said.

Of the more than 15,800 people killed since the uprising broke out, nearly 4,700 have lost their lives since April 12, when a U.N.-backed ceasefire brokered by Annan was supposed to have taken effect, Syrian activists said. The U.N. put the figure at 10,000 people killed since the beginning of the crisis 16 months ago.