US Agrees Contact With Rebels as Arab League Asks if Can Assad Survive the UN Military in Syria?

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Arabs agree Syria opposition contacts, peace force

CAIRO – The Arab League said on Sunday it had agreed to open contacts with Syria’s opposition and ask the United Nations to form a joint peacekeeping force to the nation, moves swiftly denounced by Syria. In Lebanon meanwhile, refugees from the Syrian city of Homs which is besieged by President Bashar al-Assad’s troops, gave graphic accounts of what they had endured.

Arab League diplomats “will open channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and offer full political and financial support, urging (the opposition) to unify its ranks,” said a League statement obtained by AFP. They would also “ask the UN Security Council to issue a decision on the formation of a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping force to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire.”

After marathon talks in Cairo, the 22-member bloc announced a formal end of its own observer mission to Syria, suspended last month because of an upsurge in violence.