Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has blamed a foreign conspiracy for the political violence in Syria.

In the live televised address on 10 January, Assad said that the “external conspiracy is clear to everybody”.

“Regional and international sides have tried to destabilise the country,” he added.

His comments come two weeks after a team of Arab League monitors entered Syria to oversee a deal that would protect civilians and put an end to the violence. Syria let the monitors into the country to avoid the threat of sanctions from the Cairo-based organisation.

 In his live address, Assad criticised the Arab League’s actions on Syria: “We were surprised Arabs did not stand with Syria.”

The presence of Arab League monitors in Syria has failed to halt the violence, with at the death of at least three more civilians on 9 January, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UN estimates that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed since protests began in March last year.