In This Photo: Queen Elizabeth II, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned, the Emir of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa Al-Thani, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall review a Guard of Honour during their visit Windsor Castle as part of their State visit to the United Kingdom on October 26, 2010 in Windsor, England. The Sheikh is on a two day State visit to the UK, the first
since 1985, which is seen as important in strengthening already strongly established business links with one of the Gulf States most financially powerful nations.
Qatar calls for intervention to end Syria violence
By Michael Peel in Abu Dhabi January 14, 2012 5:40 pm
Arab troops should be sent to end the bloodshed in the uprising against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Qatar’s ruler has said, the first public call for military action as political efforts to halt the violence unravel.
Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani – who joined Nato’s military action in Libya – told the US broadcaster CBS that soldiers should go to Syria to “stop the killing”, as the mounting death toll made a mockery of a regional peace plan.
The Emir’s remarks, in an interview due to be broadcast on Sunday, raise the stakes hugely in a conflict in which even Mr Assad’s enemies abroad have shied away from suggesting military intervention. Western and Arab powers fear the potentially destructive regional impact of war in a country allied with Tehran and which lies at the geographical and political heart of the Middle East.
The intervention plan floated by Qatar – a small but very rich oil state which has taken its historically muscular foreign policy to another level during the Arab awakening – is a sign of how Middle Eastern and western officials are searching for new strategies on Syria amid a faltering three-week old monitoring mission sent there by the inter-governmental Arab League.
Killings in Syria – where 5,000 are estimated to have died during the ten month uprising – have continued despite the arrival of the mission to investigate whether the regime is implementing a peace plan under which it is supposed to pull the army off the streets, release political prisoners and start talks with the opposition.
Six Syrian civilians were killed Saturday, including a 13-year-old boy and a man shot dead in the rebellious central city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed, according the Associated Press.
Nabil Elaraby, Arab League secretary-general, warned on Friday that Syria could slip into civil war. The conflict is becoming increasingly militarised, with army defectors now involved alongside the peaceful protesters whose first demonstrations almost a year ago triggered a brutal crackdown by regime forces.
Although there appears to be no appetite for western military intervention along the lines of the Nato mission in Libya that played a big part in ousting Col Muammer Gaddafi, there have been reports of an informal contact group forming to co-ordinate policy on Syria.
The group is said to include Gulf states, Turkey, the US and leading European powers, although NATO and several of its members hit back this week at Russian claims that they were “working under the Libyan scenario” with some Arab allies on a plan to topple Mr Assad militarily.
The allegations by Nikolai Patrushev, Russia’s security council chief, echo the view of Russia’s KGB-trained security elite, but also indicate that Russia is trying to pre-empt calls through the UN or elsewhere for intervention against its strongest Arab ally.
Moscow’s anxiety might have been heightened by meetings this week between Mrs Clinton, and her Saudi and Qatari counterparts.
A Russian-operated ship carrying ammunition docked in a Syrian-government controlled port earlier this week, alarming Assad regime opponents.
Syria’s opposition has condemned the Arab League monitoring mission as an ineffectual operation that is allowing the president more time to crush the uprising. observers have also been plagued by problems on the ground, including minor injuries to 11 monitors from a pro-Assad mob and a walkout by an Algerian team member who branded the operation a “farce”.
Analysts say the Syrian regime – which claims the uprising against it is an act of terrorism driven by foreign powers – has shown few signs of honouring pledges under the Arab League peace plan.
