Syria is facing the final hours of an Arab League deadline to allow in observers to monitor the country's unrest, a day after the pan-Arab body slapped sanctions on senior Syrian officials.
Syrian children in Beirut hold a vigil in June for a boy killed in state custody (REUTERS)
By Our Foreign Staff
10:24AM GMT 04 Dec 2011
The Telegraph
The new deadline came as 23 people were reported killed on Saturday across Syria, and after the UN Human Rights Council urged tougher action against Damascus, condemning its "gross violation" of human rights.
The Arab League froze the assets of 19 Syrian officials, banned their travel and reduced air travel to the nation.
Some of the protesters were killed in fighting between Syrian security forces and rebels that began in a city near the Turkish border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Army tank rounds were fired into the Bab Amro district of Homs, wounding 15.
President Bashar al-Assad faces growing economic and political pressure to end a crackdown against protests that began in mid-March, inspired by movements that toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The violence risks moving Syria closer to a civil war as military personnel defect and take up arms against the government.
"During the meeting we contacted Damascus... and we asked them to come tomorrow (Sunday, to Doha) to sign" the protocol on sending observers, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani said, announcing the deadline.
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"We are waiting for a reply," he added. "As Arabs we fear that if the situation continues things will get out of Arab control."
Sheikh Hamad was speaking after a meeting to discuss Arab League sanctions against Damascus over its bloody crackdown on more than eight months of anti-regime protests.
On the list of 19 Syrian officials banned from travel to Arab states and whose assets are being frozen by those countries are Assad's brother Maher, his cousin telecoms magnate Rami Makhluf, and military and intelligence figures.
Saturday's meeting also decided to cut by half all Arab flights to and from Syria effective from December 15, including those of the national carrier Syrian Air, a statement said.
On November 27, the Arab League approved sweeping sanctions against Assad's government over the crackdown - the first time that the bloc has enforced punitive measures of such magnitude on a member.
The measures included an immediate ban on transactions with Damascus and its central bank and a freeze on Syrian government assets in Arab countries.
The vote on sanctions came after Damascus defied an earlier ultimatum to accept observers under an Arab League peace plan.
Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said last month that the wording of the text to send observers undermined the country's sovereignty because it "totally ignores the Syrian state, even coordination with the Syrian state."
Most of the deaths occured in the northwestern province of Idlib, a focal point of anti-regime protests raging since March.
The unprecedented movement against Assad's regime has been spearheaded by peaceful demonstrators, but in recent months army deserters have formed a rebel Free Syrian Army which has inflicted growing losses on regular forces.
The United Nations says that more than 4,000 people have been killed in the crackdown and tens of thousands arrested. At least 12,400 people are also reported to have fled abroad.
In Geneva on Friday, an emergency meeting of the Human Rights Council passed a resolution "strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities."
Damascus rejected the resolution as "unjust" and said it was "prepared in advance by parties hostile to Syria."
The violence in Syria also topped talks on Friday between Vice President Joe Biden and Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Ankara.
"Assad and his regime are the source of instability in Syria now and pose the greatest danger to fanning flames of sectarian conflict not only in Syria but beyond," Biden told Gul, a US official said.
The United States stands with Turkey "in growing out of patience and calling for President Assad to step aside," Biden said in Istanbul on Saturday.
Meanwhile the leader of the main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) appealed for a UN Security Council resolution to end the deadly crackdown on civilians, while ruling out military intervention.
"What we will seek from the Security Council, above all, are mechanisms for the protection of the innocent civilians," Burhan Ghaliun told journalists in Sofia.
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