Arab League Suspends Syria’s Membership unless Peace Plan Implemented

Stop Fundamentalism – Arab League members met today in Cairo to evaluate the situation in Syria.  The group of countries decided to suspend Syrian’s membership in the league within 4 days if President Bashar Al-Assad continues to defy the international community in ending the violence against his people and stop the massive crackdown on dissent in that country.

The suspension will go into effect if Assad’s government does not submit to the peace plan designed to end violence started back in March in which over 3500 people have been killed up until now by government forces, according to the latest tally by United Nations.

Arab League also called for more economic and political sanctions to be imposed on Syria and for discussion channels to be opened with this country’s opposition, facilitating transition of power.

Syrian government continued heavy crackdown on the Syrian people despite a call by Arab league to stop and retreat its military forces from cities earlier.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, told reporters after the meeting that Arab countries were invited to remove their ambassadors to Syria in protest of bloodshed in progress by government forces.   “Syria is dear country for all of us, and it pains us to make this decision,” he told reporters.

In a statement release on Saturday, President Obama praised Arab League nations for the action taken and added that the group has shown leadership in its efforts to end the 8-months-old crisis.

In the meantime, Syrian state-run television denounced the action taken by Arab League and called it a “blatant violation of League’s charter.”

“The decision showed that the League is under the control of the United States and other countries in the Gulf region and follows their policies,” Syrian representative to the Arab League, Yousef Ahmed told reporters, today after the announcement of the decision made by Arab nations. 

Syria’s representative denied the existence of any protests in his country and said, “What has been said about existence of demonstrations against government in the media is baseless, because the demonstrations only take place one day a week.”

“If anything happens in Syria, the results will show its effect everywhere and all from neighboring countries to counties of the Gulf region will not be safe,” he threatened the regional Arab nations.

The Arab League is comprised of 22 Arab countries.