Syria’s Opposition Urges Arab League Membership Freeze

Syria's largest opposition group on Wednesday urged the Arab League to freeze the country's membership and to recognize it as the representative of the "revolution.”

In a statement, the Syrian National Council urged "the Arab League to freeze Syria's membership, ensure the protection of civilians and recognize the SNC as the representative of the Syrian revolution."

The call came as foreign ministers of the 22-member organization were set to meet Wednesday afternoon at its Cairo headquarters to press Syria to accept an Arab plan to end nearly eight months of a deadly crackdown on dissent.

The Arab League proposal calls on President Bashar Assad's regime to immediately halt the violence, remove tanks from the streets and engage in a dialogue with its opponents.

In the statement, the opposition group accused the regime of escalating its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in recent days, causing the deaths of dozens of civilians.

Such action, it said, "is Syria's response to the Arab League's plan."

Syrian activists on Sunday also urged the Arab League to freeze the country's membership, after almost 100 people died Friday and Saturday in the bloodiest two days of the uprising against Assad's regime.

"The Arab League must assume its historic responsibility by stopping the bloodshed and the massacres carried out by the regime against the Syrian people," the opposition said on Wednesday.

It urged the pan-Arab organization to impose sanctions on Syria and "take all the necessary, political, diplomatic, legal and economic measures to rescue the people from assassination and destruction."

"We also urge the people to close ranks and step up the peaceful revolution in order to achieve all their aspirations," the SNC statement added.

The SNC, the largest and most representative Syrian opposition grouping, was founded in Istanbul at the end of August and numbers 140 members, half of them living in Syria.