French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Monday that time was running out for the regime in Syria after the Arab League agreed sweeping sanctions against Damascus over its deadly crackdown on protesters.

"Its days are numbered, that is obvious. It is totally isolated today," Juppe told France Info radio, while acknowledging that efforts to try to stem the bloodshed in Syria were moving slowly.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi criticized on Sunday the government’s “hesitation” in adhering to international legitimacy, especially regarding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

He said during his Sunday sermon: “We warn against failing to respect international obligations and we hold the officials responsible for the dangerous repercussions Lebanon and its people would incur as a result of this failure.”

Bahrain and Qatar on Sunday called on their citizens to leave unrest-swept Syria after the United Arab Emirates also advised its citizens to stay away.

The call, issued on the day the Arab League was deciding on sanctions against Damascus over its deadly crackdown on dissent, was issued because of instability in Syria, said Bahrain's foreign ministry.

New sanctions imposed on Iran by Western nations make the prospect of international talks on its nuclear program "more difficult," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday in an interview with an Iranian state-run television network.

"They keep making it more difficult for them to negotiate with us," he said on the Jam e Jam channel, which is broadcast via satellite to the Iranian diaspora.

Leading Egyptian political figure Mohammed el-Baradei said on Saturday he was prepared to forgo a presidential bid if asked by the country's military rulers to be interim prime minister, his office said.

El-Baradei, who met earlier with the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said he was "ready to renounce the idea of being a candidate in the presidential election if officially asked to form a cabinet."

Arab finance ministers gathered in Cairo on Saturday drew up a list of economic sanctions against Syria that they will present to foreign ministers for adoption, a communique said.

The recommendation -- which includes a ban on Syrian officials visiting any Arab country and the freezing of government assets -- comes after President Bashar Assad's regime defied an ultimatum to allow in observers amid a lethal crackdown on protest.

Israel warned on Saturday that it would cut the supply of water and electricity to the Gaza Strip if rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas form a unity government.

"The foreign ministry is examining the possibility of Israel pulling out of the Gaza Strip in terms of infrastructure," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the daily Yediot Aharonot website.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused the Arab League on Saturday of "internationalizing" the deadly crisis hitting the country since pro-democracy protests began more than eight months ago.

The accusation came in a letter addressed to the Arab League as ministers from the group gathered in Cairo to draw up sanctions against Syria to punish President Bashar Assad's regime for defying an ultimatum to allow in observers and pressing a deadly crackdown.

The United Nations said Friday that international help is needed to feed 1.5 million people in crisis-torn Syria, but humanitarian corridors were not yet justified.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said almost three million people out of Syria's population of about 20.5 million had been affected by the deadly crackdown on protests launched by President Bashar Assad since March.

One person died in fresh clashes on Saturday, as the rift between Egypt's military rulers and activists who ousted Hosni Mubarak deepened just days before landmark polls.

The naming of a new prime minister, Kamal al-Ganzuri who once served as premier under Mubarak, failed to satisfy demands for change ahead of parliamentary elections due to start on Monday.