Syria on Monday rejected the Arab League’s wide-ranging proposal to end the country’s 10-month crisis, saying the call for President Bashar Assad to leave office after a unity government is formed amounts to “blatant interference” in Syria’s national affairs.
The Arab League on Sunday called on Assad to hand over power to his vice president as part of a transition plan similar to one that paved the way for the departure of Yemen’s president for the United States. The Syrian National Council, the main opposition coalition, welcomed the initiative as a step toward Assad’s departure. But there were no indications as to what would happen if Assad failed to comply.
Activist groups reported that 22 people were killed by security forces Sunday in incidents across the country, nine of them in Douma, a suburb on the northeastern edge of Damascus where fierce clashes have been reported between troops and rebels fighting in the name of the Free Syrian Army.
Denver Post wire services
