The Arab League has called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to hand over power to his deputy and join a national unity government that would prepare the country for new elections and a new constitution.
Syria rejected the proposal, which an official government response called “a violation of its sovereignty and flagrant interference in its internal affairs”.
Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo issued the proposal on Sunday, also agreeing to extend by one month the mandate of their observer mission to Syria. The mission was meant to oversee implementation of a cease-fire agreement between Assad and rebels fighting government troops, but has seen an increase in violence instead.
On Monday, five government soldiers were reported killed and more than a dozen others wounded in an attack by rebels in the city of Homs. Observers said that eight civilians were killed by government troops across the country as well. The death toll in the nearly year-long pro-democracy protests against the Assad regime is estimated to be well 5,400 now, with no signs of the violence abating.
The Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo said that, if Assad does not accept their national unity government proposal, they will ask the United Nations to step in and end the crisis.

Rebel soldiers fighting troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad briefly held part of a town outside Damascus late Saturday, making their boldest push yet in more than 10 months of protest that are growing increasingly into an armed uprising.

Witnesses said the Free Syrian Army held territory and set up roadblocks in Douma, a center of dissent, for up to several hours before retreating to their hideouts. The fighting began, they said, after government forces fired on a funeral procession for a resident who had been killed during protests.

Also on Saturday, at least 14 people were reported killed in a rebel attack on government troops in the north of the country, near the Turkish border. An army truck was struck by four bombs, then attacked by gunmen.

The fighting comes as the Arab League weighs whether to renew its observer mission, widely considered a failure because violence has only increased since it began its work a month ago. Syrian opposition groups have asked for foreign troops to be sent to the country to provide greater security for citizens. Arab League officials have said they are leaning toward authorizing a more robust team, possibly including United Nations observers and/or military advisers.

With the situation in Syria deteriorating, the United States said before the weekend that it may have to close its embassy in Damascus and remove all personnel from Syria.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said in Abu Dhabi Monday that he hopes “the UN Security Council handles Syria in a coherent manner and with a sense of gravity.”

“The casualties have reached such an unacceptable stage we cannot let the situation continue this way,” he added.

These statements come a day after he implored Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to “stop the massacre of his people.”

Pressure on Bashar Assad’s regime continued to mount on Wednesday, a day after the Syrian president vowed to crush the popular uprising against his rule and mocked the Arab League monitors investigating his deadly response to it.

Turkish officials seized weapons from four trucks making their way from Iran to Syria, as part of international sanctions against the Assad regime brought on by the army’s bloody repression of protests across the country. The United Nations estimates that more than 5,000 protestors have been killed since the crisis began last March.

On Tuesday, a former member of the Arab League team of observers said in an interview that he had left the mission to oversee an Arab League-negotiated cease-fire agreement because it was a “farce,” manipulated repeatedly by the Syrian government.

The same day, in a rare public speech, Assad blamed foreign conspirators for the ongoing protests and battles with Syrian army defectors, insisting that he would crush them “with an iron hand” and “declare victory soon”.

At the same time, Israeli army chief of staff Benny Gantz told the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that the army was preparing for Assad’s ouster, after which Gantz said thousands of Assad’s fellow minority Allawites could try to flee to Israel.

In a rare public address, embattled Syrian leader Bashar Assad insisted he would not step down, and blamed a “foreign conspiracy” for the unrest that has resulted in the deaths of over 5,000 people since protests began last March.

In his nearly two-hour speech at Damascus University, the increasingly-islolated Assad also rejected claims that security forces have been given orders to fire on demonstrators, and castigated the Arab League for failing “to protect Arab interests.” He said that a new constitution was being drafted, and promised that it would be put to a popular referendum when it is completed.

Despite the failure of the Arab League observer mission and an upcoming UN Security Council session on the matter, Assad sounded a positive note, saying: “These past 10 months, despite all their hardships, were very beneficial … I am confident about the future.”

JERUSALEM – The Mideast war of words heated up this week as Syrian president Bashar Assad threatened to destroy Tel Aviv in six hours with a volley of upgraded Scud missiles if Turkish or NATO forces threatened his teetering regime.

According to Israeli military sources, Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces are on the ground in Damascus, Beirut and Gaza, directing attacks on civilians and anti-government forces in Syria, integrating sophisticated weapons, including Scud missiles, into Hizbullah’s formidable arsenal and smuggling weapons into Gaza via tunnels along the porous Egypt-Gaza border.

On Monday, recently retired IDF Southern Command General Yoav Gallant backed IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz’s call for a lightning invasion of Gaza to wipe out Hamas’s terror infrastructure. Gallant chided the previous Israeli government for not finishing the job in Gaza during the course of Operation Cast Lead.

On Tuesday, a large garrison of IDF infantry and tank forces was positioned between the metro Eilat region and Egypt’s Northern Sinai desert after military intelligence once again warned of an impending attack on Israeli civilians by Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda groups operating along the lawless Sinai corridor. Annual high school and youth group trips to the mountainous desert regions around Eilat were canceled due to the terror threats. (Hotels in Eilat, which are currently filled with domestic and foreign tourists, were operating normally.)

Last week, the IDF conducted a series of intense drills to defend against conventional and unconventional attacks on major population centers. High-ranking Pentagon and IDF officials have also met in recent days to map out plans to defend Israeli and American forces in case of an Iranian attack.

The London Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Iranian Revolutionary Guard units were moving medium and long range missiles into secret bunkers in anticipation of either an American or Israeli attack on nuclear and ballistic missile facilities.

The Revolutionary Guards threatened to retaliate against American targets after a U.S. Air Force stealth drone was shot down over Southern Iran last weekend.

At least two rocket-propelled grenades hit the offices of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Bath Party pre-dawn on Sunday.  This is the first time in the course of the eight month anti-Assad uprising that a military attack has taken place in the capital city.

The strike occurred just hours after an Arab League deadline demanding that Assad end his violent suppression or face sanctions.  Responsibility was claimed by the Syrian Free Army, a group of army defectors currently based in Turkey.

President Assad was quoted on Saturday saying he would continue battling opposition and would “resist the pressure” being placed on him by opposition forces and by the Arab League.

Assad is calling for parliamentary elections in February or March to create a new Syrian constitution.  In that constitution, according to Assad, legislators will determine how Syrians will choose a president.