The United Nations for human rights said that Syria is now in a state of civil war The Arab League gave the Syrian regime until Sunday to sign an initiative to accept observers to monitor the unrest in the country, Reuters reported Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Qatari prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, as saying late Saturday. As the death toll mounted to at least 23 people killed in the latest crackdown against dissent in Syria, an Arab ministerial committee on Syria began a meeting on Saturday in Doha to discuss a set of sanctions imposed on Damascus.
The punitive measures taken by the Arab foreign ministers in Doha, included the reduction of flights going to Syria by 50 percent, in addition to placing a travel ban against 19 Syrian officials to Arab states as well as freezing their assets.
Al-Thani said that the new punitive measures will be followed even if Syria does not sign the initiative. He also warned that the Syrian conflict to exit from the Arab countries’ control.
The committee of foreign ministers will “look into a report prepared by experts about a series of Arab sanctions against Syria,” the deputy secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed bin Hilli, told AFP ahead of the meeting.
He said, however, that “contacts with Syria continue” over the Arab League demand to send observers, adding that the “door remains ajar.”
The committee of experts met in Cairo on Wednesday.
The ministerial committee includes Algeria, Egypt, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, but it remains open to any member state wanting to take part.
The Arab League on Sunday approved sweeping sanctions against Assad’s government over the crackdown − the first time that the bloc has enforced punitive measures of such magnitude on one of its own members.
Measures include an immediate ban on transactions with Damascus and its central bank and a freeze on Syrian government assets in Arab countries.
They also bar Syrian officials from visiting Arab countries and call for a suspension of all flights to Arab states to be implemented on a date to be set next week.
The vote on sanctions came after Damascus defied an ultimatum to accept observers under an Arab League peace plan and put an end to the eight-month crackdown.
Meanwhile, Syria on Saturday condemned a U.N. vote on rights violations by the country’s security forces as "unjust," and said it was based on false information from the regime's foes.
The U.N. Human Rights Council resolution passed in a vote on Friday was “unjust” and “prepared in advance by parties hostile to Syria,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.
The vote followed a report by a commission of inquiry that was “politically motivated and based on false information circulated by parties outside Syria and dishonest press organs,” the ministry said.
At an emergency meeting, the council passed a resolution “strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities.”
For Damascus, the council’s “decisions aim to prolong the crisis and convey a message of support” to the regime’s armed opponents.
The meeting in Geneva was called to address the findings of the Commission of Inquiry which said security forces had committed crimes against humanity, including the killing of 307 children, in a crackdown on dissent since March.