Arab League awaits Syrian response over unrest

DOHA, Nov 01 (Reuters): The Arab League awaited a response from Syria Monday to its proposal to end seven months of increasingly violent unrest against President Bashar al-Assad's rule and to start talks between Syrian authorities and their opponents. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country presides over the committee, also said Assad must launch serious reforms if Syria was to avoid slipping further into violence. "The whole region is exposed to a big storm. It's important that Arab leaders know how to respond, and not respond with deception or twisting and turning," Sheikh Hamad told reporters late Sunday. "What is needed is taking steps for reform which avoid what happened in some Arab countries, because the change was difficult, and the destruction and losses were great," he said, apparently referring to NATO's military action in Libya which helped bring about the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. Arab diplomats said the plan, put to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem in Qatar, included immediate release of prisoners held since February, a withdrawal of security forces, deployment of Arab League monitors and starting a dialogue. Assad told Russian Television Sunday he would cooperate with the opposition. "We will cooperate with all political powers, both those who had existed before the crisis, and those who arose during it. We believe interacting with these powers is extremely important," he said. But in another interview with a British newspaper he portrayed Syria's uprising as an Islamist insurgency which would be defeated.