CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers meet anew Wednesday to step up pressure on Syria to end nearly eight months of deadly violence, as 14 more civilians were reportedly killed in the country.
Hours before the meeting was due to start at 1400 GMT in the Arab League’s Cairo headquarters, the country’s largest opposition group urged the pan-Arab body to freeze Syria’s membership in the organization.
The meeting is being held to hear Syria’s response to an Arab roadmap calling for an immediate halt to the bloodletting, the removal of tanks from the streets and the start of a dialogue between the Damascus regime and its opponents.
Syrian state media reported early Tuesday evening that Damascus and the Arab League had agreed on the proposals but the deputy chief of the organization later stressed it was still awaiting a formal response.
State television and the SANA news agency said an announcement would be made Wednesday in Cairo.
"Syria and the Arab League are in agreement over the final paper concerning the situation in Syria and the official announcement will be made at Arab League headquarters tomorrow (Wednesday)," said the reports.
But Arab League deputy chief Ahmed Ben Helli later told Al-Arabiya television that a response had still not been received.
"The secretary general of the Arab League has not yet received Syria’s official response to the document submitted by the ministerial committee" to end the violence, Ben Helli said.
The plan was submitted Sunday to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during a meeting in Doha and a reply had been initially due Monday but Syria asked for a delay to allow its leadership to mull the proposals.
On Tuesday, an Arab League diplomat told AFP in Cairo that "there has been agreement on some minor amendments."
Syria’s Arab League representative Yousef Ahmed told AFP in Cairo that Damascus would respond to the plan on Tuesday.
"We are dealing positively with the last proposal, which was drafted (at Sunday’s meeting) in Qatar," he said.
Algerian Foreign Minister Murad Medelci also sounded upbeat.
"We had a good meeting in Doha and we have found some common group with our Syrian friends. I hope this will be confirmed in Cairo," he said.
But some diplomats in Cairo have expressed concerns that the response from Damascus will be tied to conditions to gain time.
"Syria’s answer could be ‘yes, but’ — a maneuver to buy time," said one diplomat who attended the Doha talks.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is under mounting world pressure to end the violence and implement wide-ranging political reforms to meet the aspirations of protesters who have rallied almost daily since mid-March.
The Arab proposal is aimed at ending a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters which the United Nations says has claimed more than 3,000 lives, mostly civilians.
There were more reports of bloodshed on Wednesday.
Gunmen stormed a factory in the central province of Homs and killed 10 workers while security forces shot dead four civilians in several Homs neighborhoods, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
There were no further details but the pro-government daily Al-Watan reported that "11 civilians were massacred by terrorists" on Tuesday in Homs.
The Syrian regime has repeatedly said it is fighting "armed terrorists" and Assad pledged to carry out reforms but stressed he will not make changes amid chaos.
Meanwhile, the opposition Syrian National Council urged "the Arab League to freeze Syria’s membership, ensure the protection of civilians and recognize the SNC as the representative of the Syrian revolution."
The statement followed a similar call Sunday by Facebook activists, after almost 100 people died Friday and Saturday in the bloodiest two days of the uprising against Assad’s regime.
State television carried live images of a pro-regime rally from the northern city of Raqqa where it said thousands demonstrated in support of reform and to denounce foreign interference.
