@GTurnbullSCRGrant Turnbull
Syrian tanks pound city, Saudi king condemns violence @libyatvenglish.libya.tv/2011/08/08/syr…
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Syrian tanks pound city, Saudi king condemns violence
King Abdullah broke Arab silence after the bloodiest week of the almost five-month uprising for more political freedoms in Syria, demanding an end to the bloodshed and recalling the Saudi ambassador from Damascus.Hours later Kuwait and Bahrain recalled their envoys too. President Bashar al-Assad extended a tank onslaught in Syria‘s Sunni Muslim tribal heartland on Monday, residents said, in a crackdown on dissent that prompted an extraordinary warning from Saudi Arabia that he should stop the violence or risk defeat. The steps by Gulf Arab states who watched the unrest mutely but nervously for months deepened Assad’s international isolation. Western nations have imposed sanctions on his top officials while countries with close ties to Damascussuch as Russia and Turkey have warned Assad he is running out of time. The Saudi criticism was the sharpest the oil giant has directed against any fellow Arab state since pro-democracy uprisings began to sweep across the Middle East in January, toppling autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt, kindling civil war in Libya and rattling entrenched elites throughout the region. “What is happening in Syria is not acceptable for Saudi Arabia,” Abdullah said in a written statement read out on Al Arabiya satellite television.
