Arab League official rules out NATO's intervention in Syria
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E-mail Xinhua, December 18, 2012
Arab League (AL) Deputy Secretary General Ahmed Ben Helli on Monday ruled out the possibility of NATO's intervention in Syria, official MENA news agency reported.
During a meeting with a NATO delegation, led by NATO Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Dirk Brengelmann, Ben Helli said the possibility of NATO's intervention in the Syrian crisis is "totally ruled out," since the efforts now focus on a political solution rather than a military one.
Ben Helli said the AL is making efforts to offer humanitarian aids to Syrian refugees, end the violence and killing in Syria, and make contact with the opposition so as to unify its camps and form a entity capable of taking responsibilities.
Ben Helli mentioned that there is a planned project named " Geneva 2" which is based on the consensus reached by international powers in Geneva on June 30.
According to the Geneva agreement, a transitional governing body must be formed on the basis of mutual agreement between the Syrian government and the opposition.
Ben Helli revealed that the United States, Russia and the UN-AL joint special envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi are currently negotiating "Geneva 2" project, aiming to form a unanimous version of the protocol and deliver it to the UN Security Council for approval.
The AL and the NATO delegation also talked about ways of boosting bilateral cooperation in fighting terrorism, ridding the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as well as latest developments in regional countries, according to Ben Helli.
As for the scheduled talks between the AL chief Nabil al-Arabi and Brahimi on Tuesday, Ben Helli said the two sides will discuss the results of recent talks between Brahimi and several foreign ministers of the European Union countries on the Syrian issue, current situation in Syria, international position on the crisis, and the role of the opposition bloc National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which was formed by Syrian opposition groups in early November in Qatar's capital of Doha.
