Arab League Chief Says “No” to Ban Ki-moon’s Plea to Stop Arming Syrian Rebels

The Arab League has rejected out-of-hand a plea by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to stop providing arms to the Syrian rebels. Ban met on Monday with Arab League head Nabil Al-Arabi and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani. Ban’s reckoning is that “more arms mean more death and destruction,” but Al-Arabi reasoned that, “The government is getting arms from certain parties so if the other side gets some arms from certain parties I think you can get some form of a balance there."  The Arab League last month green-lighted its member-states to do what they decide to do regarding the provision of weapons to the rebel forces. The Syrian civil war is now in its third year and the death toll, according to the United Nations, is well over 70,000.