Syria suspended from Arab League

Liz Sly, Saturday



The Arab League suspended Syria's membership of the regionwide body on
Saturday, paving the way for a significant escalation in international pressure
against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The 22-member League also called for economic and political sanctions against
Syria and urged Arab states to withdraw their ambassadors, in a rare display of
Arab solidarity against a fellow regional ruler.

Only two countries voted against the measure, Yemen and Lebanon, with Iraq
abstaining, demonstrating the extent to which Syria is now isolated in the
region.

The move came after Syria flouted the terms of an Arab League peace plan under
which it had agreed to draw its troops from cities and stop firing at the
protesters who continue to take to the streets on a daily basis to demand the
overthrow of the regime. Instead, the Syrian army launched a major offensive
against the central city of Homs, and did not halt its attacks on protests.

According the Local Coordination Committees, a group that monitors and supports
protests, 250 people have been killed since the League's plan was adopted Nov.
2, with an additional 37 killed during protests on Friday.

The new measures against Syria will go into effect Wednesday, the League said.

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim, who was instrumental in pushing
the suspension, also called on Syrian opposition parties to attend a meeting at
Arab League headquarters in the next three days to "agree on a unified vision
for the transitional period," a step that seemed to take the League closer to
acknowledging that Assad's regime should go.

If Syria fails to halt the violence, the League will seek additional assistance
from the United Nations in pressuring it to do so, he said, a move that would
echo the escalation against Libya's Col. Muammar Gadhafi earlier in the year
after Libya was suspended from the Arab League.