The United Nations is set to train Arab League observers monitoring the political unrest in Syria.

The training will be carried out by specialists from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a UN spokesperson was quoted as saying in international press.

The training of the monitors is expected to begin in Cairo after the Arab League’s ministerial meeting on 22 January.

In a televised address on 10 January, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad blamed a foreign conspiracy for the political violence in Syria.

On 26 December, 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.

The presence of Arab League monitors in Syria has failed to halt the violence, with the deaths 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 2011.