الرئيسية
A pro-reform supporter, covering his face and head with
Syria's pre-Baath old national flag, joins a protest outside the Arab
League headquarters in the Egyptian capital Cairo.(AFP/Mahmud Hams)
By AFP
DAMASCUS (AFP) - An Arab League deadline for Damascus to
accept observers or face sanctions passed on Friday without a response
from a defiant Syria, as activists reported more deaths in anti-regime
protests.
"Until now there has been no response from the Syrian
government," an Arab League source in Cairo told AFP after the 1100 GMT
deadline passed.
With the deadline gone, Turkey said Syria's
failure to open its doors to an observer mission heightened concern that
Damascus was trying to conceal a worsening humanitarian situation.
The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least six people were
killed as thousands of anti-regime protesters demonstrated in several
cities around the country.
The dead included a 17-year-old boy
killed when security forces opened fire indiscriminately in the eastern
city of Deir Ezzor, it said, prompting a denial from Damascus.
Activists
had urged Syrians to rally in support of the rebel Free Syrian Army
whose mutinous soldiers have claimed repeated attacks, including an
ambush Thursday that Damascus said killed six pilots and four other
people.
State news agency SANA said huge rallies in support of
President Bashar al-Assad were held in Damascus and Syria's second city
Aleppo, with protesters denouncing the Arab League moves and vowing to
confront "the conspiracy" facing their nation.
Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Istanbul the Arab League ultimatum to
accept a mission of several hundred observers or face sanctions had been
a last chance for Assad's regime.
"Syria was expected to say yes
to the observers... unless there is a reality it hides about the
situation in Syrian cities," Davutoglu said after the deadline's expiry.
"As
it said no, it increased... the concerns on the humanitarian
situation," he said, in the wake of UN estimates that the lethal
crackdown on dissent has cost more than 3,500 lives since protests
started in March.
Anatolia news agency quoted Davutoglu as also
saying he would join a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo
on Sunday to discuss next moves.
Turkey already had some
measures in hand against Damascus, he said, adding. "We are going to
harmonise them with those prepared by the Arab League."
The Arab
League had earlier said its finance ministers would meet on Saturday to
vote on sanctions against Damascus -- including the suspension of
flights and freezing government assets -- if Syria failed to sign.
The
League also for the first time said it wants UN help in its showdown
with Assad, and diplomats in New York said on Friday the League may want
a UN contribution to the international observer mission that Syria is
refusing to let in.
In New York, a UN spokesman said the world body's human rights chief is in contact with the Arab League over Syria.
UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is "extremely concerned at the escalating
crisis and mounting death toll in Syria" and is ready to help the Arab
League, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, without elaborating.
Nesirky
told reporters however that the office of UN Human Rights Commissioner
Navi Pillay "is in contact with the secretariat of the League of Arab
States" over the request.
But Syria's Cold War ally Russia, which
last month used its UN Security Council veto to block a resolution that
would have threatened "targeted measures," dismissed the deadline.
"At
this stage, what we need is not resolutions, sanctions or pressure, but
inter-Syrian dialogue," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander
Lukashevich said in Moscow.
Syrian officials and analysts said
this week that Arab sanctions on Damascus -- which is also facing a raft
of US and European punitive measures -- could choke the country's
economy.
Syria depends on its Arab neighbours for half or its exports and a quarter of its imports.
"If
that is to happen, it will be very unfortunate because the damage will
be to all sides," Economy Minister Mohammed Nidal al-Shaar told AFP in
an exclusive interview.
But "we don't expect all Arab countries
to yield or participate in sanctions," he added. "In fact, we are
almost certain that some Arab countries will not participate," he said.