AL suspends Syria, calls for sanctions

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal attends an emergency ministerial meeting at the Arab League's Cairo headquarters on the situation in Syria on November 12, 2011.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/209682.html

The Arab League (AL) has announced the suspension of Syria, calling for sanctions to be imposed on the country and inviting the Syrian opposition for transition talks.

AL on Saturday voted “to suspend Syrian delegations' activities in Arab League meetings” until the peace plan proposed by the League is implemented by the Syrian government, APF quoted the Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassem al-Thani as saying.

The League urged Arab countries to recall their ambassadors from Syria and called for the imposition of economic and political sanctions on Syria.

The announcements came during an emergency meeting at the League's headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The meeting was held after the AL reached the conclusion that the peace plan, which Syria accepted on November 2, had failed to bring violence to a halt in the country.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March and according to the United Nations, over 3,000 people have been killed in the violence. Hundreds of Syrian security forces are among the dead.

While the Syrian opposition accuses the security forces of cracking down on what it calls anti-government protesters, Damascus blames the violence on outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups sponsored by foreign countries.