Is it time for Arab intervention in Syria?

The Emir of Qatar has called on Arab militaries to help stop the bloodshed in Syria in a move that is widely seen as challenging UN efforts at resolving the 18-month conflict through negotiation.

But, addressing the UN General Assembly, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani’s message was clear – the UN has failed in its mission; it is now time for Arab intervention.

“We have used all available means to get Syria out of the cycle of killing, but that was in vain,” the emir said in an address in New York.

“In view of this, I think it is better for the Arab countries themselves to interfere out of their national, humanitarian, political and military duties and do what is necessary to stop the bloodshed in Syria.”

In a news conference on the sidelines of the assembly on Tuesday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, was highly critical of any foreign intervention in Syria. Ahmadinejad accused “outside forces” of meddling in the country – though he did not directly name any countries.

He warned that outside interference might throw the region into a new war, bringing, “short-term results”, but which he said would keep Syria in chaos and instability for decades to come.

Meanwhile Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister, has told Al Jazeera that Ahmadinejad is wrong to suggest that Arab forces in Syria would inflame the crisis.

He said: “The forces will not be going to Syria to fight. Their goal will be to stop what is going on in Syria. As you know, there were originally Arab forces which went there to observe the ceasefire in the past … and these forces, because they were few and not well equipped, could not stop the bloodbath …. There must be a sufficient number of peacekeeping forces and fighting in Syria must stop.”

To discuss the proposed Arab force, Inside Syria, with presenter Laura Kyle, speaks to gueats: Hassan Hachimi, a member of the general secretariat of the Syrian National Council; Elias Hanna, a military analyst and retired military general in the Lebanese army; and Joseph Kechichian, an independent Middle East analyst and columnist for Gulf News.