NYT: Fear of Civil War Mounts in Syria as Crisis Deepens

[pampango]

10. Tunisia won't rule out troops in Syria

Tunisia has cautiously added its voice to calls from Qatar for direct intervention to stop the bloody crackdowns on protesters in Syria.

The foreign minister of Tunisia said in an interview to APTN on Sunday that he would not rule out troops being sent into the country. “We hope that the Syrians will sit on the table and sort out their problems with the head of the Arab colleagues within the umbrella of the Arab League," Rafik Abdessalem said in Beirut.

Once a close ally to the regime of Bashar Assad, Qatar’s leader has become a harsh critic of the regime’s violent oppression of protesters. The Gulf state withdrew its ambassador to Syria in the summer.

Abdessalem’s remarks are pertinent considering that Tunisia was the first Arab country to oust a dictator through a peaceful revolution a year ago – triggering what would be called the Arab Spring and causing the downfall of regimes in Egypt and Libya.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/01/15/tunisia-syria-intervention.html

I doubt that Tunisia, Qatar, the Arab League or anyone else is going to intervene militarily in Syria without the UN authorizing it. It is that more Arab countries are putting pressure on Assad.