Syria's ties with the Arab League were thrown into crisis Sunday over a proposed peace plan, as it reformed press laws while activists called a day of prayers for "martyrs" of the anti-regime uprising. As security forces killed at least five more people across the country, according to activists, Damascus said an Arab League statement on the bloodshed in Syria contained "unacceptable and biased language."
Its delegation to the Cairo-based organisation rejected the overnight statement demanding an end to the killings as its chief, Nabil al-Arabi, waited for a green light to travel to Damascus.
In a diplomatic note seen by AFP, Syria said the declaration was issued "despite the meeting having closed with an agreement that no statement would be published or statement made to the press," it said. Damascus would act as if it had never been published.
The Arab League announced its initiative aimed at solving the crisis in Syria where more than 2,000 people have been killed in anti-regime protests since mid-March, to be delivered in person by its secretary general, Arabi.
The 22-member organisation's foreign ministers at a meeting on Saturday night called for an "end to the spilling of blood and (for Syria) to follow the way of reason before it is too late."
The foreign ministers also called for respecting "the right of the Syrian people to live in security and of their legitimate aspirations for political and social reforms." Arabi said on Sunday he was awaiting a Syrian invitation to travel to Damascus. "I'm waiting for the response of Syria's government," he told journalists in the Egyptian capital, adding he was ready to leave immediately.
On the home front, President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday issued a decree on a new media law that would lift the threat of imprisonment for journalists and allow greater access to information, the official news agency SANA reported.
The law partly liberalises repressive legislation under which journalists faced jail for, among other things, attacking "the prestige and dignity of the state, national unity and the morale of the army."
"The law gives more freedom to have access to information," Elias Murad, head of the Syrian journalists' union, told AFP.
Murad said that the reformed law lifts restrictions on the work of journalists, except for on "issues related to the nation, enemy and national unity, which is natural." However journalists can still face a fine of up to $21,000 for defamation.
Assad's move was the latest bid to help end anti-regime protests. Earlier this month, the embattled president issued decrees on the formation of political parties as well as general elections.
In the latest bloodshed, two people were killed in Idlib province of north-west Syria near the Turkish border on Sunday in an operation mounted by security forces, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
And security forces shot dead a demonstrator in the southern town of Inkhel during a protest at a funeral for 14-year-old Sultan al-Farwan who died after havinng been wounded two weeks ago Two people were also killed overnight in the Damascus suburb of Harasta as a crowd of some 2,500 tried to march toward the capital, the Observatory said.
The Syrian Revolution 2011, a key driver of the protests, called for prayers in cities around the world "in churches and in mosques for the martyrs of freedom," in a message on Facebook.
Turkey's President Abdullah Gul, quoted by Anatolia news agency on Sunday, said Ankara has lost confidence in the Syrian regime. "Actually (the situation in Syria) reached a level that everything is too little, too late. We lost our confidence," Gul told Anatolia in an interview. "Today in the world there is no place for authoritarian administrations." Russia, meanwhile, announced it was sending an unnamed top envoy to the Syrian capital on Monday.
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