THE Arab League has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his vice-president under the terms of a transition plan similar to that which paved the way for the departure of Yemen's president for the United States.
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The announcement of the plan at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo signalled growing Arab frustration with Mr Assad's failure to implement the terms of a peace plan to which he agreed in November, and it offered the clearest indication yet that Arab states want him to step down.
The plan laid out a timetable under which negotiations with the opposition would begin in two weeks and a national unity government would be formed within two months. Mr Assad would then leave office and elections would be held within three months. It was not immediately clear which of two Syrian vice-presidents, Farouk al-Sharaa or Najah al-Attar, would be expected to take over.
The Syrian National Council, the main Syrian opposition coalition, welcomed the initiative as a step towards Mr Assad's departure, said the group's leader, Burhan Ghalioun. Activists in Syria have repeatedly said, however, that they would not negotiate with Mr Assad.
Mr Assad vowed in a defiant speech this month that he would not step down unless the Syrian people asked him to.
The Arab League's secretary general, Nabil Elaraby, said the bloodshed would have to stop before the negotiations could start, a condition that cast into doubt the likelihood that the plan would succeed at a time of rapidly escalating violence.
''The chances of that happening are next to zero, and I also can't imagine Assad will accept this,'' said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar. ''At best, this is throwing down something that is certainly new but has little chance of success.''
The league said it would refer the plan for endorsement to the UN Security Council, indicating that Arab states were prepared to seek wider international involvement in the Syrian crisis.
¦ The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, citing an unidentified government official, yesterday said the plan was a violation of the country's sovereignty.
WASHINGTON POST, BLOOMBERG
