Arab League denies getting Syria response to plan on ending unrest

Nov 2, 2011, 7:26 GMT

Cairo - The Arab League has denied receiving a response from Syria to its plan for ending the country's months-long unrest, Arab media reported Wednesday.

'I am telling you that, until now, the Arab League has not been informed of Syria's formal response to the Arab initiative,' the pan-Arab organization's deputy secretary general, Ahmed Ben Helli, told the Dubai-based broadcaster Al Arabiya.

The state Syrian News Agency SANA reported late Tuesday that a deal had been reached with the Arab League and that the announcement would be made at a meeting in Cairo on Wednesday.

'We are still waiting for it. My information is that the Syrian side will present it on Wednesday,' he said.

An Arab League committee on Syria - headed by Qatar and comprising the foreign ministers of Algeria, Egypt, Oman and Sudan - met Sunday in Doha with a Syrian delegation led by Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and proposed a plan to end the unrest.

The commission is to meet in Cairo on Wednesday for more talks on the Syrian crisis.

According to United Nations figures, more than 3,000 people, including at least 187 children, have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on pro-democracy protests that began in mid-March.