Arab League: Preparing for Syria After Assad | Al Akhbar English

Arab League: Preparing for Syria After Assad | Al Akhbar English

clipped from article

In a surprise vote last Saturday, the Arab League effectively suspended Syria’s membership in the organization. The decision appears to mark the beginning of a transitional period preparing Syrians for life after Assad.

Although it reflects a change in their position, the Arab League’s recent resolution regarding Syria did not come out of nowhere. It is the product of four months of negotiations and haggling over the situation in Syria.

From the beginning, the League insisted that it was working to help both the Syrian regime and the opposition to find a solution without recourse to the UN, by keeping it within the Arab house, as it were.

Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, currently heading the ministerial committee on Syria, have maintained that the League’s aim is to prevent foreign intervention in Syria, so as not to repeat the Libyan scenario.

However, despite continued assurances that Syria is not Libya, many observers have begun to say that regardless of the differences between the two cases, there is nothing stopping the Syrian situation from playing out as it did in Libya.

Over the past month, it has become increasingly clear that the Arab states are taking up the Syrian case only to place it before before the UN under the banner of protecting civilians.

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