Arab League Votes for Syria Sanctions

UPDATE: In an unprecedented move, the Arab League has voted for strict sanctions against founding member nation Syria. 19 of the league's 22 countries voted for the sanctions, which include cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank and halting funding for government projects in the country.

The Associated Press reports that President Bashar Assad's regime condemned the move, saying it was a betrayal of Arab solidarity, and that the sanctions targeted regular citizens in an already struggling national economy. 

The Arab League's Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said the sanctions could be dropped if Syria agrees to an Arab-brokered peace plan that includes sending observers to the country and removing heavy military presence in some areas.

"We call on Syria to quickly approve the Arab initiative," Secretary Elaraby said, according to AP.

During this year's uprising in Syria, the conflict has moved from security forces committing violence against mostly peaceful protests to a more complicated--and to many, alarming--scenario. As the BBC has been reporting from the ground, defectors from the country's military are joining with others and fighting back against Syrian military forces as the "Free Syrian Army." More and more worry that the country is at the brink of civil war.

A growing number are killed daily in intensifying clashes taking place in the city of Homs and elsewhere. Should the situation in the country deteriorate further, the centrally-located Middle Eastern country could profoundly impact it's neighbors. From AP:

"There have been widespread concerns that the unrest in Syria could spill outside its borders, sending unsettling ripples across the region.

Syria is a geographical and political keystone in the heart of the Middle East, bordering five countries with whom it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel's case, a fragile truce. Its web of allegiances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran's Shiite theocracy."

Qatar and Baharain warned citizens to avoid travelling to Syria, and those already there to leave immediately. A similar warning was sent earlier in the week by United Arab Emirates. And Reuters reports that Turkey, once a steadfast ally of its neighboring country but now a harsh critic of President Bashar Assad's regime, has entered a level of high alert.

"I observe a simmering threat in the region based on a Sunni-Shiite divide," Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. "It ... has the potential to move the Muslim world from the 21st century into the darkness of the Middle Ages."

Original Post Friday Nov. 25, 12:36 p.m.: Syria and the Arab League seem even further along a collision course, after the country failed to deliver on a deadline the league set for allowing a peaceful observer mission into Syria to monitor unrest there.

The BBC reports that the league requested 500 observers be allowed into Syria to monitor unrest — part of a larger plan to repair relations between Syria’s leadership and the Arab League, which voted to suspend the country’s membership earlier this month. The deadline for that allowance was Friday, but President Bashar al-Assad’s administration had said it would only allow 40 observers into the country — a number negotiators said was unacceptable.

The latest statement from the Syrian military, meanwhile, pledged to “cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood,” according to the Associated Press.

On Saturday, the Arab League will discuss leveling sweeping economic sanctions against Syria--a major reversal in an alliance of which Syria was a founding member. Signs of worsening violence in the country have further isolated President Assad, brought more international criticism against his regime, and raised fears of an approaching civil war.

Activists said 11 more people were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces on Friday. The Syrian military also said that six elite pilots and four other officers were killed Thursday in the city of Homs, which has been the epicenter of the country’s unrest in recent months. Since Syria has banned foreign journalists, it was difficult to verify the military’s claims.

The United Nations says nearly 3,500 people have already died in the country since the military crackdown on the revolt began earlier this year.  

More from AP:

“Also Friday, a U.N. human rights panel expressed alarm at reports it received of security forces in Syria torturing children. The Geneva-based Committee against Torture says it has received "numerous, consistent and substantiated reports" of widespread abuse in the country.

Former ally Turkey - now a leading critic of Assad's regime - said allowing the observers would be a 'test of goodwill' for Syria.

‘Today is a historic decision day for Syria,’ Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a joint news conference with Italy's new Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi Friday in Istanbul. ‘It must open its doors to observers.’”