Arab League chief heads to U.N. over Syria

By Ayman Samir

CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby headed to New York on Sunday hoping to win support from the U.N. Security Council for a plan to end violence in Syria that calls on President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.

Elaraby will brief the Security Council on Tuesday but the Arab initiative, which is backed by Western states, is facing resistance from Russia and China, two of the five permanent members of the council with veto powers.

The league sent observers to Syria in December to monitor whether it was heeding an earlier plan that included a call to withdraw the military from residential areas. The pan-Arab body suspended their work on Saturday after violence mounted.

The monitors, depleted since Gulf states quit the mission, are being pulled back to Damascus, a step one league source said he expected would lead to a decision by Arab states to scrap the mission. Arab foreign ministers meet on February 5.

Elaraby, the league's secretary-general, will be joined in New York by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the league's committee charged with following Syrian developments. Qatar and fellow Gulf Arab state Saudi Arabia have been leading efforts to put pressure on Assad.

"We will hold several meetings with representatives from members of the Security Council to obtain the council's support and agreement to the Arab initiative," Elaraby told reporters at Cairo airport shortly before leaving for New York.

Asked about China and Russia's reluctance to take new steps over Syria, Elaraby said he hoped the two nations would change their position. "There are contacts with China and Russia on this issue," he said.

He said the Arab monitors had gathered in Damascus and would not leave the Syrian capital until their status was decided.

INFLUENCING THE SECURITY COUNCIL

League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Helli told reporters Arab foreign ministers meeting on February 5 would "take an appropriate decision on whether to support (the observer team), withdraw it or amend its mission."

A source in the observers operation room in league headquarters in Cairo said the head of the monitoring mission, Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, was waiting for a decision from the Arab ministers on the fate of his team.

"I think personally that the Arab ministers will have no alternative to withdrawing the observers because the working conditions in Syria are extremely dangerous," the source said.