Syria given three days to ‘stop bloodshed’

Foreign ministers from Arab states met in Rabat, Morocco yesterday and said that they had asked experts to draft a plan for economic sanctions against Syria.

Syria boycotted the meeting, but said that it remains committed to the Arab peace plan. Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threw stones and debris at the United Arab Emirates emabassy in Damascus.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim al-Thani [pictured] said that the Arab League was “close to the end of the road” in its dealings with Syria. He said the deadline was necessary “in order to stop the killing in Syria and in order to respect the hopes of the people and to help the economic situation and to stop the bloodshed and avoid an international intervention.”

No details about what would happen if Syria failed to comply with their demands, were given.

Comparison with Libya

Speaking from Rabat, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu compared Syria with Libya, where rebels captured and killed their former leader Muammar Gaddafi last month. “The regime should meet the demands of its people,” he said. “The collective massacres in Syria and… the bloodshed cannot continue like this.”

Britain, France, Germany and several Arab states have said they will soon be calling for a UN General Assembly vote to condemn Syria for nine months of violence against anti-government protesters, German officials said on Wednesday.

Read more: Syria – what happens next?