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Arabs turn up heat on Assad. Arab League & Turkey declared they were "against all foreign intervention in #Syria." bit.ly/tIR0Wd
Syrian military policemen wave Syrian flags atop a lamp post during a rally to show support for Syria's President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Published: Nov 16, 2011 23:51 Updated: Nov 16, 2011 23:56
RABAT: Turkey and members of the Arab League called Wednesday for "urgent measures" to protect Syrian civilians from violent repression by the regime of President Bashar Assad as France recalled its ambassador from Damascus after attacks on its missions.
In a statement issued after a Turkish-Arab cooperation forum in Rabat, Arab League members and Turkey declared they were "against all foreign intervention in Syria."
"The forum declares that it is necessary to stop the bloodshed and to spare Syrian citizens from new acts of violence and killing and demands that urgent measures are taken to ensure the protection of civilians," the statement said.
"Ministers also stressed the importance of Syria's stability and unity and the need to find a resolution to the crisis without any foreign intervention," it said.
The Turkish-Arab talks came ahead of an Arab League meeting on the Syrian crisis in Rabat amid growing signs the Assad regime is losing its grip on power with disaffected soldiers attacking a military base near Damascus.
The meeting is intended to discuss further measures against Syria which was suspended by the 22-member bloc last weekend after it failed to implement an Arab peace plan.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Wednesday that France has recalled its ambassador from Syria and is working with the Arab League on a new draft resolution at the UN General Assembly. "New violence is taking place and that has led to the closure of the missions in Aleppo and Latakia and to the recall of our ambassador to Paris," Juppe told lawmakers.
Assad's supporters threw stones and debris Wednesday at the embassy of the United Arab Emirates and smeared its walls with graffiti, witnesses said.
Abusive graffiti were spray-painted on the walls, according to two residents who live near the building in the affluent Abu Rummana neighborhood, one of the most secure districts of the capital near the home and offices of Assad.
Meanwhile, Syrian Army defectors said they launched several attacks Wednesday on President Bashar Assad's military bases near Damascus, including one on a Syrian intelligence facility — the latest in stepped-up assaults by the renegade troops targeting the regime's forces.
The Free Syrian Army said in a statement that its main attack in the early hours Wednesday targeted a compound run by the Air Force Intelligence in the Damascus suburb of Harasta. The renegade group said the other attacks targeted military checkpoints in the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Qaboun and Arabeen and Saqba.
The claim of the attacks could not be independently confirmed and the Free Syrian Army released no details about the fighting or possible casualties.
The attacks near Damascus are rare and clashes between defectors and troops have in the past been concentrated in the northwestern province of Idlib and central region of Homs and the southern province of Deraa.
The attacks come two days after defectors killed 34 of Assad's soldiers and members of the security in Deraa, on what was one of the bloodiest days of the eight-month-old uprising.
The United Nations says that more than 3,500 people have been killed since Assad launched a crackdown on the protesters in mid-March
