CAIRO - An advance team from the Arab League arrived in Syria on Thursday to prepare for the deployment of monitors who will assess whether Damascus is implementing a plan to end a nine-month crackdown on protests, a member of the team told Reuters.
"We arrived in Damascus safely," Waguih Hanafy, a senior aide to Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, said by telephone from the Syrian capital. Elaraby has said the monitors could be sent before the end of December.
