Arab League To Impose Sanctions on Syria
Syrian Unrest
Members of the Arab League on Saturday gathered to draft sanctions against the regime in Syria after Bashar al-Assad defied the ultimatum to allow observers to ascertain the scope of his eight-month crackdown. The finance ministers are expected to impose freeze on flights and governmental assets, then to submit their proposal to the foreign minister for approval on Sunday. Turkish foreign minister said he would join the Arab League ministers on Sunday in order to harmonize the views of his cabinet to the ones of the Arab League members.
Ahmet Davutoglu took the chance to stress out that the regime in Damascus missed its last opportunity to meet the ultimatum of the Arab League. The Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said it was not possible to impose sanctions on Assad’s regime.
Iraq, who is a neighboring country of Syria, and has economic ties with the embattled country, decried on Friday the instability in Syria. Davutoglu charged that if the regime in Damascus did not want observers to come to Syria, then it had something to hide.
Referring to the ultimatum to allow observers, which expired on Friday, Davutoglu said that he was expecting Bashar’s regime to agree with it, unless it had something to hide. He added that because the regime in Damascus said no to the observers, the humanitarian situation in this country becomes cause to concern.
On Thursday, the French foreign minister proposed that humanitarian corridors be created in Syria, so that the medical support arrive in zones like Homs and Daraa, where the fighting is being carried.
The French proposition entails the existence of military protection of the convoys, especially if the regime denies them the right to operate, and Turkey is seen like the regional power that could make this happen.
Turkey made it clear on various occasions that Syria was an internal matter, and that any solution to the crisis in Syria must include it. Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO and the fourth in the world, and is thought to be able to carry on a military operation in Syria on its own.
Turkey has already imposed its own set of sanctions against Syria, halting any oil transactions and imposing an embargo on arms.
Syria depends for half of its exports and quarter of imports on the Arab countries, and an embargo would severely cripple its economy. Syrian economy minister decried the possibility to be submitted to sanctions, but added that not all the Arab nations would march on such measures.
Lebanon, whose government is dominated by pro-Syrian Hezbollah, already announced that it would not respect an embargo on Syria. Russia, though it abstained a vote on the UN human rights committee on Tuesday night, continues to argue that it opposed any sanctions on this country.
16 people were killed in Syria on Friday, raising the death toll of those who lost their lives since the unrest began. The UN human rigths agencies consider that 4,000 people died since March, when the crackdown began.
