WORLD_ Arab League suspends Syria

Protesters burn portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad outside the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Saturday.
_______

Arab League suspends Syria

Samer al-Atrush in Cairo
From: AFP
November 13, 2011 8:07AM


Protesters wave a flag during their anti-Syrian regime protest in front of the Arab league headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Picture: AP Source: AP

THE Arab League has suspended Syria until President Bashar al-Assad implements an Arab deal to end violence against protesters, and has called for sanctions and transition talks with the opposition.


RELATED

.Arab League suspends Syria Herald Sun, 1 hour ago
.Deadly crackdown leaves 26 dead Herald Sun, 1 day ago
.Arab leaders offer asylum to Assad The Daily Telegraph, 1 day ago
.Protesters stop Syrians seeing Arab League NEWS.com.au, 2 days ago
.Arabs to meet on Syria NEWS.com.au, 5 days ago


Syria angrily denounced today's suspension as illegal, saying it has implemented the agreement and claiming the move due to take effect next Wednesday was ordered by the United States.

A statement, read by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, said the League decided "to suspend Syrian delegations' activities in Arab League meetings" as long as it stalls on the plan and to implement "economic and political sanctions against the Syrian government".

Syrian Ambassador Yussef Ahmad, quoted by Syria's official media, said the decision is "illegal and contrary to the treaty" that set up the pan-Arab organisation.

Damascus has "implemented all the articles of the agreement", he told reporters in Cairo, although at least 125 people have been killed in the flashpoint city of Homs since the deal was reached on November 2.

"It was clear (the decision) was decided through a US order," he said, accusing the League of working for an "American agenda".

Ahmad also said the moves "put an end to joint Arab action and show that the (League's) administration is subjected to US and Western agendas".

Apart from the suspension, which had been sought by the Syrian opposition, the League called for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus but left the decision to each member state.

Sheikh Hamad said the measures would take effect on November 16 and Arab ministers would meet again to decide on specific sanctions.

The statement also called for the protection of civilians and said Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi would contact international organisations concerned with human rights, "including the United Nations", if the bloodshed continued.

It called for a meeting in Cairo with Syrian opposition groups in three days to "agree a unified vision for the coming transitional period in Syria". The opposition would later meet with Arab foreign ministers.

A week of deadly violence in the central city of Homs overshadowed the meeting, in which ministers had appeared divided on what measure to take but eventually voted by majority on the final statement.

Assad's regime agreed on November 2 to the Arab roadmap, which called for the release of detainees, the withdrawal of the army from urban areas, free movement for observers and media and negotiations with the opposition.

Instead, human rights groups say, the regime has intensified its crackdown, especially in Homs.

"Homs is a microcosm of the Syrian government's brutality," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of Human Rights Watch, which accused the regime of crimes against humanity based on its systematic abuses against civilians.

Human Rights Watch, like protesters and Syrian opposition leaders, urged the Arab League to suspend Syria's membership as punishment for its brutal eight-month crackdown on dissent.

At least 23 people were killed in violence in Syria on Friday alone, most of them civilians in Homs, which an opposition group declared a "humanitarian disaster area" earlier this week.

On Saturday, three people were killed in clashes in the northwestern region of Idlib, near Turkey, after between 50 and 60 soldiers defected to the opposition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

And in Homs, security forces carried out raids and arrests in the Bab Sebaa and Bab Dreib districts, it said, adding that "heavy gunfire was heard in the neighbourhood of Baba Amro".

With NATO ruling out operations and UN Security Council sanctions unlikely because veto-wielding permanent members Russia and China are allies of Assad's regime, regional actors have come to represent the best avenue to pressure Damascus.

Damascus argues it has moved forward on the deal by releasing 500 prisoners, and its envoy to the Arab League expressed on Friday his government's willingness to receive a pan-Arab delegation.

"This will help assess Damascus's commitment to the (Arab) plan and to unveil motives behind certain external and internal parties working for the failure of the Arab blueprint," the official SANA news agency quoted Ahmed as saying.

Despite the Assad regime's prevarication, the United States insists its days are numbered and says that even Arab leaders are encouraging him to step down quickly.

"Some Arab leaders already have begun to offer Assad safe haven in an effort to encourage him to leave peaceably and quickly," Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said.

"Almost all the Arab leaders say the same thing - Assad's rule is coming to an end. Change in Syria is now inevitable," Feltman told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a hearing.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/arab-league-suspends-syria/story-e6frfku0-1226193701739#ixzz1dXSAxJdP



Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .


conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
13112011
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC