League Warns Syria to Admit Monitors or Risk Sanctions

[alp227]

Source: NYT

In a humiliating affront for the Syrian government, Arab foreign ministers called Thursday for Syria to agree to admit international monitors within 24 hours or face economic sanctions, while activists reported new clashes between army troops and defectors that left 29 dead across the country.

The announcement from the Arab League ministers came after the European Union said Thursday that safeguarding civilians against President Bashar al-Assad’s ferocious crackdown had become a priority. The death toll in eight months of violence now exceeds 3,500, the figure cited by the United Nations in early November.

“Protection of civilians in Syria is an increasingly urgent and important aspect of responding to the events in country,” said Maja Kocijancic, a European Union spokeswoman, in a statement.

But the European Union stopped short of endorsing a proposal floated Wednesday by Foreign Minister Alain Juppé of France to set up humanitarian corridors — with or without the consent of the Syrian government — to allow aid groups into the country. Such a step would be a major escalation of foreign involvement in what has become one of the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/world/middleeast/arab-league-warns-syria-of-sanctions-deadline.html

[ellisonz]

1. Syria misses deadline to agree to monitors or face sanctions

November 25, 2011 | 10:43 am

REPORTING FROM BEIRUT -- A deadline passed Friday for Syria to agree to Arab monitors or face sanctions, with no word from the embattled government of President Bashar Assad.

The Arab League had given Syria 24 hours to sign a protocol for an observer mission that would monitor efforts to implement a peace plan endorsed by Assad’s regime earlier this month.

Without that signature, the league’s social and economic council was expected to meet Saturday to consider a package of sanctions, which could include suspending flights, halting trade and financial dealings with the government and freezing its assets. But an official in Cairo told the Reuters news agency that the league would wait until the end of the day to decide what to do.

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SANA reported Friday that 10 military personnel, including six pilots, died Thursday in an ambush between the cities of Palmyra and Homs in central Syria. Syria's military command said the attack was evidence of foreign involvement. It did not elaborate.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/syria-arab-league-sanctions.html