Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned an attack by angry protesters on its embassy in Damascus, blaming the Syrian government for a security lapse, the Saudi state news agency reported. “The Syrian forces did not carry out the necessary measures to stop the demonstrators,” a foreign ministry official was quoted as saying by SPA news agency. “The Saudi government strongly condemns this incident and holds the Syrian authorities responsible for the security and protection of all Saudi interests in Syria,” said the official. The attack on the Saudi embassy Saturday evening was triggered by the Arab League's suspension of Syria over its failure to honor a deal to end a bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters. According to SPA, a group of protesters gathered outside the embassy and began hurling stones at the building. They eventually smashed windows and entered the premises, ransacking property inside. Saudi Arabia recalled its Syrian ambassador on Aug. 8 and announced the move was in protest over the government's repression of demonstrators. Also Saturday, demonstrators protested outside the Qatari embassy and Turkey's diplomatic mission in protest over the Arab League decision. Qatar's ambassador also left the Syrian capital in July. One group of protesters forced open the gate and made their way to the top of the building, where they removed the Qatari flag and put up a Syrian one, as embassy security personnel fired tear gas. Qatar's ambassador also left the Syrian capital in July. In Damascus, police used tear gas to disperse around 1,000 pro-regime protesters who tried to storm the Turkish embassy, officials told Anatolia. The crowd hurled the tear gas shells into the grounds and pelted the embassy with stones and plastic bottles, the report said. Meanwhile around 5,000 demonstrators smashed the windows of Turkey's honorary consulate building in Latakia and burned a Turkish flag. After attacks on its interests Turkey has decided to evacuate the families of its diplomats in Syria. According to the United Nations, the crackdown has cost more than 3,500 Syrian lives. Meanwhile, Syria has called for an emergency summit of Arab League heads of state to discuss unrest in the country, state television said on Sunday, a day after the League suspended Syria for its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Quoting an official source, the television said the objective of the proposed summit would be to discuss the unrest's “negative repercussions on the Arab situation”. A report from Tripoli said the Arab League was studying measures to protect civilians in Syria. “The Arab League is studying mechanisms it could implement to protect civilians in Syria,” the League's Secretary General, Nabil Al-Arabi, told reporters in the Libyan capital, without going into details. Arabi hailed the League's decision to suspend Syria as “historic” and said the regional bloc called for the “international protection” of civilians in Syria as the organization did not have the means to act alone.
