BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
IT has taken too long, and too much blood has been shed, too many killed, for the Arab League to take this action against the brutal assad regime. How many more must be slaughtered before decisive action is taken, before the League sends troops into Syria to protect the innocent, the children, women and men who's only "crime" is wanting freedom, democracy, and their human rights as declared in the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights? I fear tens of thousands of Syrians will perish before the Arab League acts. What a waste. From the Washington Post and Al Jazeera Syria Live Blog, click the header to go to the.....blog for updates.....
BEIRUT — 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. Leila Fadel contributed from Cairo. SYRIA LIVE BLOG from AL JAZEERA
A demonstration in Hama on Friday called for Syria's Arab League membership to be frozen [YouTube]
People continue to take to the streets across Syria despite the government's crackdown on protests. Reports say thousands have been killed since the demonstrations started in March 2011, on both sides.
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"Today's Arab League meeting saw developments, but it came after a long time, after eight months of killing," said Ibrahim Alshatay, a 35-year-old Syrian activist. "We hope today's decisions will end the violence immediately and no more men, women or children will die in Syria." - Reuters For the latest on Syria, check out Al Jazeera's Syrria spotlight page.
Yemen and Lebanon opposed Syria's suspension from the Arab League and Iraq abstained in the vote.
Freezing Syria out of the 22-member League of Arab States carries extra symbolism in the wake of events in Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a rebellion that benefited from NATO air support.
The NATO mission got United Nations Security Council approval after Libya was suspended by the Arab League.
"This step introduces a possibility of foreign intervention and opens the door for engaging the international community in the case and reminds us of what happened with Libya," said Nabil Abdel Fattah, a political analyst at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.
Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim al-Thani of Qatar held out the possibility that the League may ask the United Nations to help protect the rights of Syrians.
"If the violence and killing doesn't stop, the Secretary General will call on international organisations dealing with human rights, including the United Nations," he said. - Reuters
Youssef Ahmad, Syria's ambassador to the Arab League, told Syrian state television on Saturday that the decision to suspend Syria's participation "is an announcement of the death for joint Arab action, and a scandalous declaration that the leadership of such action is subject to American western agendas."
Syria has long blamed foreign intervention for the violence.
The Arab League has given Syria three days to end its violent crackdown on anti-government protesters and implement an Arab peace deal or face suspension from the regional body.
Al Jazeera speaks to veteran Middle East journalist, Robert Fisk of The Independent for his views on how the Syrian government is likely to respond.
Protesters lay burial shrouds outside the Arab League's headquarters in Cairo on Saturday to symbolise the thousands killed in Syria's uprising and shame Arab governments into action to try to stop the violence. - Reuters For the latest on Syria, check out Al Jazeera's Syrria spotlight page.
Arab ministers, gathered in the Arab League's Cairo headquarters, called a recess early into the meeting to allow a narrowed ministerial committee to work out a final position, a source who was inside the meeting said.
He said there was a strong push by some states to suspend Syria, while others wanted to give President Bashar al-Assad's regime more time.
Khaled al-Habbas, an assistant to Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, told reporters before the meeting that the situation in Syria was "complex" and "Arab countries are trying to find a solution that reconciles different viewpoints." - AFP For the latest on Syria, check out Al Jazeera's Syrria spotlight page.
Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, who is watching developments from Majdal Anjar, near the Lebanese-Syria border, says "the situation on the ground in Syria is deteriorating very, very quickly."
Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf, reporting from Cairo, outside the Arab League's headquarters, said: "There is a little bit of optimism if only because the situation is getting more and more desperate".
"An adviser to the Arab League secretary-general has just told us that indeed freezing Syria's membership in the Arab League is one of the options, but certainly not the only option, and that's what foreign ministers have gathered here to determine."
Khaled al-Habbas, the adviser to the secretary-general of the Arab League, told Al Jazeera the group has not ruled out the idea of "suspending Syria's membership today".
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