Arab League chief to visit Syria on Saturday, Arab foreign ministers to meet in Cairo

The Arab League said its secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, will visit Syria on Saturday, three days later than
originally planned amid a deadly crackdown on an anti-regime protests in the country. “It was decided that the Arab League secretary general will visit Syria on Saturday during a telephone conversation between (Arabi), Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and Syria’s envoy at the League,” the pan-Arab group’s deputy leader, Ahmed Ben Helli, told reporters in Cairo. Arabi had been scheduled to visit Syria on Wednesday, but the regime in Damascus postponed the trip at the 11th-hour “due to circumstances beyond our control.”

He had been commissioned by the 22-member bloc to travel to Damascus with a 13-point document outlining proposals to end the government’s bloody crackdown on dissent and push Syria to launch reforms.

Arab governments broke months of silence at a meeting at the Arab League in Cairo last week, demanding Syria stop the bloodshed, and decided to send Arabi to Damascus to push for political and economic reforms.

Arab foreign ministers are also scheduled to meet in Cairo next week to discuss Syria, Arab diplomats said.

“The situation in Syria will top the discussions in the coming ministerial meeting after the delay to the visit of the Arab League Secretary-General to Syria,” said a representative at the League for one Arab state, asking not to be named.

A League official confirmed a ministerial meeting would be held on September 13.

The Arab representative said there was no plan to suspend Syria’s membership in the Arab League, as happened to Libya in February after forces loyal to the now deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi attacked protesters.

“No one is thinking till now about freezing Syrian membership in the Arab League because every Arab state is keen on stability in Syria. All that Arab foreign ministers asked in the last meeting was to speed up the pace of reforms and stop the violence,” he said.

Another diplomat at the League said the September 13 meeting would discuss Syria, Palestinian issues and Somalia. The Arab representative said the situation between Sudan and the newly independent south and Libya would also be on the agenda.