Leaving

Gulf States Pull Syrian Observers

Call on U.N. to take action.

The Arab League observer mission in Syria is set to lose six more member countries on Sunday, as the Gulf Cooperation Council prepares to withdraw. The move comes after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rejected the observer team’s proposal to hand over power to a deputy and form a government that includes the opposition. Assad rejected the proposal immediately as “flagrant interference.” Though the head of the team says the mission is succeeding, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported that the GCC does not want to be “false witnesses to crimes committed against civilians.” The six members of the council, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar, are urging the U.N. Security Council to take “all needed measures ... to press Syria to implement the Arab League and the Arab initiative on Syria.”