Syria: Arab League suspension 'dangerous step'

The Arab League's shock move to expel Syria has ruffled more than a few feathers Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on Monday that an Arab League decision to suspend his country’s membership was “an extremely dangerous step,” adding that the scenario of Libya will not be repeated in Syria.
“The decision of the Arab League to suspend Syria ... represents a dangerous step,” Muallem told a packed news conference in Damascus.
“Today there is a crisis in Syria which is the price it has to pay for ts strong positions. Syria will not budge and will emerge stronger ... and plots against Syria will fail,” said the minister.
 Muallem also told a televised news conference that Washington’s welcoming of the Arab League decision amounted to “incitement.”
 He said Saturday's near-unanimous vote at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo was an illegitimate decision prompted by American incitement.
 “We wanted the role of the Arab League to be a supporting role but if the Arabs wanted to be conspirators, this is their business,” he told a press conference in Damascus that betrayed his country’s deep concern over the decision.
 The vote to suspend Syria 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.
 Syrian President Bashar Assad asserts that extremists pushing a foreign agenda to destabilize Syria are behind the country’s unrest, rather than true reform-seekers aiming to open the country’s autocratic political system.
 Muallem repeated his invitation for Arab League officials to visit Syria this week to oversee implementation of an Arab League plan for ending the bloodshed.
yria also has called for an Arab summit to discuss the country’s spiraling political unrest. But critics say that is another possible bid by 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.
 Muallem said “Libya scenario will not be repeated” in Syria despite the Arab League’ suspension on account of the stance taken by China and Russia . He said the two U.N. veto-wielding countries will not change their positions on Syria at the U.N. Security Council after the Arab League's decision.
Several places in Syria witnessed demonstrations rejecting the Arab League’s decision to suspend Syria's membership and the League's call to hold an emergency summit to "address the crisis in Syria". Thirty protestors were reported killed by security forces.
The Arab League's decision to suspend Syria  infuriated Damascus and triggered attacks on Saudi Arabian, Qatari, French and Turkish missions in Syria on Saturday night.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Sunday also condemned the attack on the embassies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar in Damascus by the Syrian government forces, as at least 30 people were killed in the violent crackdown across Syria on Sunday.
GCC chief Abdullatif al-Zayani described the attack as a violation of the diplomatic traditions and called on Damascus to protect the GCC diplomatic missions. Zayani urged the Syrian government to hold accountable those who were responsible for the attacks and to take all the necessary procedures to protect the Arab diplomats. The GCC chief said that punishing the attackers would guarantee that similar incidents would not be repeated.
In the meantime, Egypt declared its rejection of foreign intervention of any kind in Syrian affairs, while Borhan Ghalyoun, head of the National Opposing Council said that he was notified by a number of European states that they intend to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus.
Syria also called on the Arab League to hold an emergency summit on Sunday for discussing the best way to resolve the Syrian crisis and mitigate its consequences on the Arab world, according to Syrian newswire SANA. The official statement said: "Due to the escalation of events in Syria and its consequences on national security and threat to joint Arab work, the Syrian leadership suggests an instant call for holding an emergency summit to address the crisis in Syria and reduce its potential negative impact on the Arab world."    
Official sources said: "Syria welcomes the Arab Ministerial Committee before the 16th of this month with the required civil and military observatories from the member countries to give a close eye to what is happening in the country and oversee the execution of the Arab initiative with full cooperation of the Syrian government."
The same sources demanded that the General Assembly of Arab League headed by general secretary Nabil El Araby move quickly to execute the proposals.
SANA also stated that millions of people had begun marching to all squares in the country on Sunday morning to express their rejection of the Arab League’s decision.
Protestors considered the expulsion as a ploy to undermine Syria’s sovereignty through foreign intervention. Millions chanted national songs and slogans rejecting potential intervention and reminding the Arab people of Syria’s part in supporting Arab causes and its role in the League’s foundation, according to SANA.  
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia condemned the attacks on Qatar’s and its embassies, where protestors replaced the countries’ flags with the Syrian flag.
WAS, the official newswire of Saudi Arabia reported: "A group of protestors threw stones at the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Damascus, and then broke into the building without taking any counter moves from the part of the Syrian authorities." WAS also accused the security forces of not intervening in time.
Another group of 1,000 Assad supporters attacked the Turkish embassy in Damascus on Saturday evening, throwing stones and bottles before Syrian police intervened to break up the protest, Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency said.
Non-Arab Turkey, after long courting Assad, has lost patience with its neighbor’s failure to halt the violence and implement promised reforms. It now hosts the main Syrian opposition and has given refuge to defecting Syrian soldiers.
France “very firmly” condemned “the systematic destruction of Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Damascus” and attacks on its own honorary consulate in Latakia and diplomatic offices in Aleppo, and said Syrian security forces did not intervene to stop them.
“These attacks constitute a bid to intimidate the international community after the courageous decisions taken by the Arab League in response to the continuing repression in Syria,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Syrian Human Rights Observatory, based in London, reported that 30 were killed including 2 from the security forces in extensive firing from five armed individuals believed to be dissidents from a security patrol serving at Al Qaseer in Homs. Meanwhile, seven civilians were killed in Hamah; three in Al Byada and four in Al Qahir street , Baba Amro and Bayadah respectively. The national hospital received 13 dead bodied, only one of which was identified.   
The events also raised the number of martyrs in Hamah to six including a 16-year-old secondary school student today, while five others were left seriously injured after joining a demonstration at Dair El Zour.
The UN has reported that over 3,500 have been killed in the uprising since they kicked off in March, while official estimates point to 1500 dead including 800 from the security forces. According to official sources in Syria, foreign-supported unknown armed groups are behind the killings.   
Algeria later announced that it had no intention of withdrawing its ambassador from Damascus as per the Arab League’s recommendations. The Algerian Foreign Minister’s official spokesman Ammar Ballany stated that the decision to withdraw ambassadors was a sovereign decision of each state and that Algeria would not abide by it.
Billany also denied that Algeria had shown reservations  and then reversed its decision, saying that Algeria has agreed on the suspension of Syria’s membership.
He said the decision will go into force at the Rabat meeting, which will bring together Arab foreign ministers and Turkey.
Meanwhile, in the first official response to the decision to suspend Syrian membership, Adnan Monsieur, Lebanon's foreign minister, said to Manar space channel that the decision was not “prudent enough” as it “opened the door to foreign intervention”. He also described the consequences of the decision as serious as it was against a founding member of the League.
He inquired about the conditions required to apply the sanctions quoting Article No. 2 of the decision that allows foreign intervention in Syria and asked: “Are three days enough to gather all Syrian opposing political forces to talk and coordinate?”
Former secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Mousa, supported the decision of suspension. The potential candidate for Egypt's presidency added: "Continuous killing in Syria is no longer acceptable and I support all calls of the Arab League on the Syrian armed forces to put an end to the killing of civilians."     
The Arab League plans to impose as yet unspecified economic and political sanctions on Damascus and has appealed to member states to withdraw their ambassadors.
Assad’s exiled uncle, Rifaat, meanwhile, proposed Sunday that Arab countries negotiate a deal with Damascus that guarantees the president’s security “to allow him to resign.”
“The regime is ready to leave, but it wants guarantees, not only for its members but also that there will not be civil war after its departure,” said the former deputy president.
Despite the increasing international isolation and domestic turmoil, Assad still enjoys support among Syria’s minorities, including his own Alawite sect and Christians, wary of sectarian conflict or Sunni Muslim domination if Assad were to be toppled.