Syria Calls for Urgent Summit After Arab League Sanctions Regime

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
November 13, 2011, 8:54 AM EST By Glen Carey and Ola Galal

Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Syria has called for an emergency Arab League summit a day after the organization suspended the country as President Bashar al-Assad’s government pressed on with a crackdown against protesters.

The summit would “address the Syrian crisis,” the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported today, citing an unidentified government official. The Syrian government also would welcome an Arab League delegation, the news service said.

Syria has continued a crackdown on dissenters since agreeing to a Nov. 2 Arab League plan for ending the violence. Security forces killed 11 people today, Al-Arabiya television reported, citing activists.

Anti-regime protests erupted in Syria in mid-March, inspired by uprisings that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and led to the death last month of Libya’s long-time ruler, Muammar Qaddafi. More than 3,500 protesters have been killed in Syria, the United Nations said Nov. 8.

Assad has blamed the fighting on Islamic militants and foreign provocateurs. Thousands of Syrians rallied today in different cities to condemn the Arab League’s decision, SANA reported.

--With assistance from Zaid Sabah Abd Alhamid and Nadeem Hamid in Washington and Paul Tighe in Sydney. Editors: Louis Meixler, Digby Lidstone.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Riyadh at gcarey8@bloomberg.net Ola Galal in Cairo on ogalal@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net