The Arab League Sunday approved sanctions against Syria to pressure the regime to end its deadly eight-month crackdown on dissent. Damascus slammed the move as a betrayal of Arab solidarity. At a press conference in Cairo, Qatar Foreign Minister Hamad Bin Jassim said 19 of the League's 22 member nations approved the sanctions, including cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank and halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria. The League's step was unprecedented against an Arab nation. Syria is facing mounting international pressure to end its violent suppression of protests against President Bashar Al-Assad, which the UN says has killed more than 3,500 people since March. Iraq abstained from the vote, and refused to implement the sanctions, while Lebanon “disassociated itself” from the decision, he said. The decision also called on Arab central banks to monitor transfers to Syria, except remittances from Syrians abroad to their families. The Arab League had set a Friday deadline for Damascus to agree to an observers' mission, part of a reform deal Syria had previously said it accepted. Syria has denounced the Arab League's moves to suspend it from the pan-Arab body and level sanctions against Assad's regime. In a letter to the Arab League Saturday, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused the organization of seeking to “internationalize” the crisis in his country. Until recently, most of the bloodshed was caused by security forces firing on mainly peaceful protests. Lately there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Al-Assad's forces — a development that some say plays into the regime's hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force. On Sunday, activists reported fierce clashes in the flashpoint city of Homs, in central Syria, pitting soldiers against army defectors. Violence in Homs and elsewhere across the country killed at least 11 people Sunday, according to the Local Coordinating Committees, a coalition of Syrian activist groups. Many of the attacks against Syrian security forces are believed to be carried out by a group of army defectors known as the Free Syrian Army. Meanwhile, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh acknowledged that 100 Syrian military and police deserters have taken refuge in the kingdom during the uprising. It was the first official public confirmation that Jordan hosts Syrian defectors. In September, officials said privately that Jordan had received 60 Syrian army and police deserters, who ranged in rank from corporal to colonel. Earlier, Bahrain and Qatar called on their citizens to leave unrest-swept Syria after the United Arab Emirates also advised its citizens to stay away. In Doha, the foreign ministry urged Qataris to leave Syria “as soon as possible,” while Abu Dhabi earlier in the week advised Emiratis to delay travel plans to Syria.
