(Reuters) – Damascus – After months of hardline policy, Syria’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdesi responded positively to the Arab League initiative aimed at halting President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on protests in which the United Nations says more than 4,000 people have been killed.
Damascus had complained that the initiative, which includes a plan to allow observers into the country to monitor its implementation, would infringe its national sovereignty. But it says it has been seeking clarification on the proposal and had not rejected it out of hand.
“The protocol is intended to be signed soon,” Makdesi told journalists in Damascus.
