Syrian regime calls for emergency Arab summit amid growing pressure, isolation by neighbors
By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, November 13, 2:35 PM
BEIRUT — Syria’s embattled regime called for an urgent Arab summit as it faced growing isolation Sunday, not only by the West but by its neighbors, over its bloody crackdown against an eight-month uprising.
The crisis raised regional tensions, with Turkey sending a plane to evacuate nonessential personnel after a night of attacks on several embassies by Syrian government supporters angry over the Arab League decision Saturday to suspend their country’s membership.
The 22-member bloc’s rare, near-unanimous vote — only Lebanon, Yemen and Syria were opposed — put Damascus in direct confrontation with other Arab powers, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who were pushing for the suspension. The vote constituted a major boost for the Syrian opposition.
Tens of thousands of government supporters poured into the streets of Damascus and other cities, the turnout helped by the government’s closing of businesses and schools so that people could take part.
“You Arab leaders are the tails of Obama,” read a banner held at a huge pro-regime rally in Damascus accusing the Arab League of bowing to pressure from the U.S.
Violence continued elsewhere, with activists reporting at least 14 people killed in shootings by security forces in several parts of the country. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven of the deaths occurred in Hama when security forces fired on opposition protesters who infiltrated a pro-government rally.
Syria’s call for an Arab summit to discuss the country’s spiraling political unrest was seen as another possible bid by President Bashar Assad to buy time as he faces snowballing punitive action over a crackdown that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
In a thinly veiled warning, the government said it was calling for the meeting “because the fallout from the Syrian crisis could harm regional security” — an apparent effort to play on fears that Assad’s ouster would spread chaos around the Middle East.
But in a significant concession, Syria also invited Arab League officials to visit before the membership suspension is scheduled to take effect on Wednesday, and said they could bring any civilian or military observers they deem appropriate to oversee implementation of an Arab League plan for ending the bloodshed.
The Syrian government is usually loath to accept anything resembling foreign intervention, and the invitation signaled the government’s alarm over the Arab action.
Arab League officials did not immediately respond to the request for an emergency summit. Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby, on a visit to Libya, demanded immediate implementation of the peace plan. The Nov. 2 plan called on Syria to halt attacks on protesters, pull tanks out of cities and hold talks with the opposition. Syria signed on to the plan, but nothing has changed on the ground.
In voting for the suspension, the Arab League said it would meet again Wednesday in the Moroccan capital of Rabat to reconsider the decision, giving Assad some time to take action to prevent it.