Syria Calls for Urgent Arab Summit as Arabi Says League Seeking to Protect Syrians
Damascus on Sunday called for an urgent Arab summit to address the crisis in Syria, a day after the Arab League suspended the country's membership over its failure to implement a plan to end bloodshed.
"Syria demands an emergency Arab summit to address the crisis and its negative consequences in the Arab world," state television SANA reported.
Meanwhile, the Arab League said Sunday it is studying measures to protect civilians in Syria after suspending the country's membership over its failure to implement a deal to end bloodshed.
"The Arab League is studying mechanisms it could implement to protect civilians in Syria," the League's secretary general, Nabil al-Arabi, told reporters in the Libyan capital, without going into details.
Arabi hailed the League's decision to suspend Syria on Saturday as "historic" and said the regional bloc called for the "international protection" of civilians in Syria as the organization did not have the means to act alone.
"There is nothing wrong with going to the U.N. Security Council because it is the only organization able to impose" such measures, he added.
The League said the suspension would remain in place until President Bashar Assad implements an Arab deal to end violence against protesters, and called for economic and political sanctions and transition talks with the opposition.
The eight-month crackdown on dissent and related violence in Syria has left more than 3,500 people dead, the majority of them civilians, according to U.N. figures.
Source: Agence France Presse
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