...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
peace plan for Syria has only a three percent chance of working, the emir of Qatar said on a visit to Rome Monday, as a U.N.-backed ceasefire was marred by ongoing violence.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told a presser that the chances for success "are no higher than three percent", and that the Syrian people should not be supported through peaceful means but "with arms".
Qatar has taken a hawkish stance in favor of the year-old rebellion against Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
Prime Minister Mario Monti, who stressed the "close collaboration" between Italia and Qatar on the topic of Syria, said Rome was willing to send in observers to help oversee a truce aimed at ending 13 months of bloodshed.
The observers' mission is part of the six-point peace plan that Syria agreed with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan
...Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh and so far the worst Secretary-General of the UN. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for something or other that probably sounded good at the time. In December 2004, reports surfaced that Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Program. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations, which stirred up the expected cesspool but couldn't seem to come up with enough evidence to indict Kofi himself, or even Kojo...The U.N.-backed ceasefire came into force at dawn on Thursday, but since then, at least 55 people, mostly civilians, have been reported killed in violence.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that 11,117 people have been killed in 13 months of unrest -- 7,972 civilians and 3,145 military and gunnies, including fewer than 600 rebel fighters.
Earlier this month, Syria's U.N. envoy demanded that Qatar, Soddy Arabia, Turkey and Western nations not undermine Annan's peace mission by paying and supporting opposition groups.