The seat of the Foreign Minister of Syria is seen empty during a meeting for Arab foreign ministers Foreign ministers from the Arab League and Turkey will meet in Cairo Sunday to discuss how to react to Syria’s failure to respond to an ultimatum for an observer mission, Turkey said Friday. Anatolia news agency Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu quoted him as saying at Ankara airport that he would be attending, adding that Turkey already had some measures in hand against Damascus.
“We are going to harmonize them with those prepared by the Arab League,” he added.
A deadline set by the Arab League for Syria to sign a deal allowing monitors into the country expired on Friday without any Syrian response but Arab governments will give Damascus until the end of the day to answer, an Arab source earlier said.
Arab foreign ministers had said in Cairo on Thursday that unless Syria agreed to let the monitors in to assess progress of an Arab League plan to end eight months of internal bloodshed, officials would consider imposing sanctions on Saturday.
“The deadline has already ended, but the Arab League leaves the door open for Syria to reply by the end of the day and if a positive Syrian response comes on Friday, then the Arab League has no objection to agreeing to it,“ the source said, according to AFP.
Turkish foreign minister earlier said the deadline was a last chance the Syrian regime had to solve the crisis.
“It is a last chance, a new chance for Syria,” Davutoglu told reporters in Istanbul in the final hours before the midday (1100 GMT) deadline
With the deadline gone, Turkey said Syria's failure to open its doors to an observer mission heightened concern that Damascus was trying to conceal a worsening humanitarian situation.
The sanctions could include a suspension of commercial flights to Syria and a halt to dealings with its central bank, Afifi Abdel Wahab, Egypt's envoy to the league, said in Cairo on Thursday.
Wahab's comments came after members of the Arab League convened in Cairo to discuss the escalating crisis in Syria in the wake of President Bashar al-Assad's refusal to end his crackdown on anti-government protesters.
In another development, the UN voiced fresh alarm at consistent reports of executions and torture of civilians including children in Syria as well as killings of demonstrators.
Claudio Grossman, the chairman of the UN Committee against Torture, spoke in a news briefing of "rife or systematic attacks against [the] civilian population, including the killing of peaceful demonstrators".
He said that reports of children suffering torture and mutilation during detention were of particular concern, and that Syrian authorities had been acting with total impunity in what it called "gross and pervasive" human rights violations.
Composed of 10 independent experts, the committee voiced concern for the "extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, arbitrary detention by the police forces and the military; and enforced and involuntary disappearances".
The committee normally reviews each country's record every four years, but took the unusual step of issuing a spontaneous demand to the Syrian government to explain its actions.
Fresh anti-government protests were reported in various towns across Syria and activists said that at least 26 people had been killed, most of them in the central province of Homs.
The province also saw an ambush which led to the killing of 10 armed forces, including six elite military pilots, according to the Syrian armed forces quoted by SANA news agency.
The dead included a 17-year-old boy killed when security forces opened fire indiscriminately in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, it said, prompting a denial from Damascus.
Activists had urged Syrians to rally in support of the rebel Free Syrian Army whose mutinous soldiers have claimed repeated attacks, including an ambush Thursday that Damascus said killed six pilots and four other people.
State news agency SANA said huge rallies in support of President Bashar al-Assad were held in Damascus and Syria's second city Aleppo, with protesters denouncing the Arab League moves and vowing to confront "the conspiracy" facing their nation.
State television meanwhile said Syrian security forces had bust a "terrorist gang" in the central province of Homs, killing 16 of its members, arresting dozens and seizing large quantities of arms.
The operation was carried out in the town of Rastan in Homs, the report said, without specifying when it was launched.
It cited an unidentified official as saying that the "armed men sowed terror in the town."
The UN estimates that the lethal crackdown on dissent has cost more than 3,500 lives since protests started in M
The Arab League had earlier said its finance ministers would meet on Saturday to vote on sanctions against Damascus -- including the suspension of flights and freezing government assets -- if Syria failed to sign.
The League also for the first time said it wants UN help in its showdown with Assad, and diplomats in New York said on Friday the League may want a UN contribution to the international observer mission that Syria is refusing to let in.
In New York, a UN spokesman said the world body's human rights chief is in contact with the Arab League over Syria.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is "extremely concerned at the escalating crisis and mounting death toll in Syria" and is ready to help the Arab League, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, without elaborating.
Nesirky told reporters however that the office of UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay "is in contact with the secretariat of the League of Arab States" over the request.
But Syria's Cold War ally Russia, which last month used its UN Security Council veto to block a resolution that would have threatened "targeted measures," dismissed the deadline.
"At this stage, what we need is not resolutions, sanctions or pressure, but inter-Syrian dialogue," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in Moscow.
Russia also urged China and other partners in the BRICS group of emerging economies to start talks with the opposition and warned against foreign intervention without U.N. backing,
In a carefully worded statement after consultations on Thursday in Moscow, the five nations did not mention the Arab League threat to introduce sanctions over Syria’s crackdown on protests if Damascus does not sign a deal to let monitors in.
The meeting brought together deputy foreign ministers from Russia and China, which last month vetoed a Western-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's government, as well as Brazil, India and South Africa, which abstained.
They “underscored that the only acceptable scenario for resolving the internal crisis in Syria is the immediate start of peaceful talks with the participation of all sides, as the Arab League initiative says,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.
“Any external intervention that does not correspond with the United Nations Charter must be ruled out.”
Russia has close ties to Syria, which has been a big buyer of Russian weapons and hosts a Russian naval maintenance facility on the Mediterranean, a rare outpost abroad for the Russian military.
But Moscow has been increasingly isolated in its support for Assad. It has urged his government to implement reforms faster, but has rejected pressure from Syrian opposition groups to call for his resignation and has accused Western nations of trying to set the stage for armed intervention.
Syrian officials and analysts said this week that Arab sanctions on Damascus - which is also facing a raft of US and European punitive measures - could choke the country's economy.
Syria depends on its Arab neighbours for half or its exports and a quarter of its imports.
"If that is to happen, it will be very unfortunate because the damage will be to all sides," Economy Minister Mohammed Nidal al-Shaar told AFP in an exclusive interview.
But "we don't expect all Arab countries to yield or participate in sanctions," he added. "In fact, we are almost certain that some Arab countries will not participate," he said.
The United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in Syria since March in clashes between the authorities and pro-democracy protesters.