GENEVA, Switzerland, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to meet with Syrian opposition leaders four months after she urged rebels to create a "unified vision" for reform.
The meeting -- set for Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland -- is Clinton's second get-together with the resistance movement since the uprising seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad began March 15, the State Department said.
The seven leaders Clinton will meet with live outside Syria. Opposition leaders inside Syria are reluctant to leave for fear they will not be allowed to return, a senior Obama administration official told The Washington Post.
Clinton said Aug. 2 the activists she met with that day in Washington envisioned a representative, inclusive and pluralistic Syria, "with a government subject to the rule of law and fully respectful of the equality of all Syrians, irrespective of sect, ethnicity or gender."
"I encouraged the activists to work closely with their colleagues inside Syria to create this unified vision," she said in a statement.
The Tuesday meeting is to take place the same day Clinton delivers a human rights speech at the U.N. Human Rights Council. It comes a day after Syria said it would let Arab military and civilian observers into the country as part of an Arab League proposal to end nearly nine months of bloodshed there.
Syria attached conditions to the agreement, including the cancellation of the league's economic sanctions against Syria. League Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby dismissed that demand, telling reporters in Cairo the sanctions would remain in force "until another decision is adopted by the Arab foreign ministers."
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdesi told reporters in Damascus he was "optimistic" the agreement would be signed soon, "although I await the Arab League response first."
The 22-member league suspended Syria last month and approved sweeping sanctions, including freezing government assets, suspending cooperation with the country's central bank and halting funding for Syrian projects.
If Assad does not agree to the monitors, Syria could face additional league measures approved during the weekend, including a travel ban on 19 senior officials and a reduction in the number of flights between Syria and other Arab countries, the league said.
These moves came amid growing sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and Turkey.
The United Nations said last week more than 4,000 people had been killed and at least 14,000 had been detained in the crackdown. It cited evidence Syria's military and security forces committed crimes against humanity, including the torture, rape and killing of Syrians, including children.
Syria disputes the death toll, saying more than 1,100 security-force members have been killed defending the country against what it describes as foreign-backed "armed gangs" seeking to foment a civil war. Nine of those security-force members were buried Monday, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported.
The Local Coordination Committees activist network said 17 people died in renewed violence Monday, most of them in the central province of Homs, the uprising's epicenter.
At least 63 people were killed across the country during the weekend, several Syrian human rights groups said.
