(Image source: Flickr/Paul Keller)

BY MALLORY PERRYMAN

Under international pressure for its response to anti-government protesters -- Syria has agreed to an Arab League peace plan that will allow foreign monitors into the country. Here’s MSNBC.

Chuck Todd: “Syria agreed to allow Arab League observers as part of a deal to end the government's crack down on demonstrators. Syrian officials signed the deal with the Arab League after members threatened to ask the United Nations to intervene in the crisis.”

Since the bloody crackdown began nine months ago - Syria has refused to let human rights observers inside its borders. As euronews reports-- it didn’t look like Syria would agree to the Arab League’s plan-- until the organization threatened to send the case to the United Nations.

“The agreement also calls for troops to be withdrawn from city centres and for political prisoners to be freed. Until now Syria has been wavering over the deal. But in Damascus the foreign minister said it signed on Russia’s advice after various demands were met.”

But the leader of Syria’s main opposition bloc says-- this move is just a political ploy. Al Jazeera quotes him saying--

"The Syrian regime is manoeuvring to try to prevent the Syrian file being submitted to the UN Security Council... They have no intention of implementing any initiative."

The Telegraph’s Middle East correspondent Adrian Blomfield explains-- President Bashar al-Assad has promised to follow the Arab League’s peace plan before-- and hasn’t followed through. As for the monitors being allowed inside Syria, Blomfield notes...

“How much independent access the observers will be given to Syria's most restive cities remains far from clear... While [the Syrian foreign minister] promised they would be ‘free’ he also insisted that they would operate ‘under the protection of the Syrian government’.”

Without total access- an American Thinker blogger says-- the monitors may not have much of an impact.

“This is significant but hardly a game changer...It is not likely that the Arab League observers will be able to do anything about the killings...unless Assad withdraws his troops. And that isn't very likely.”

Syria’s foreign minister says-- he thinks the regime will be vindicated when observers see what’s really going on. Meanwhile-- the United Nations estimates at least 5,000 civilians have died in Syria since the uprising began in March.