ANKARA/JEDDAH — This week has brought more trouble for the embattled Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad as more and more of his trusted soldiers have deserted him amid escalation of tension with Turkey over the downing of a jet. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) added to Assad's discomfiture by seeking Monday suspension of the violence-torn country. A Syrian general and 38 other soldiers defected to Turkey overnight, state television said Monday, days after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane, escalating tensions between the two neighbors. Turkey has summoned a NATO meeting for Tuesday to agree a response to the downing of its military reconnaissance jet in what it says was an attack without warning carried out over international airspace. Turkey's cabinet Monday discussed Friday's attack, which lent a more menacing international dimension to the 16-month-old uprising against Assad. Britain said it could press for more serious action at the United Nations Security Council. European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg called for a calm response from Turkey, saying they would increase pressure on Assad. There seemed little appetite, however, for any military retaliation against Syria “Military intervention in Syria is out of the question," said Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal. “It is not a matter of consideration for the Dutch government. That is also at stake in the ... context of NATO." The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation's executive committee has recommended suspending Syria's membership in the pan-Muslim grouping, it said in a statement Monday. The committee has “recommended to the meeting of the council of foreign ministers to be held in Djibouti the suspension of Syria's membership in the OIC in light of the bloody events taking place in the country," said the statement that followed a meeting late Sunday. “Saudi Arabia supported the recommendation," the statement quoted foreign ministry undersecretary for bilateral relations Prince Turki Bin Mohammad as saying. “The meeting must take decisive and strong action after the failure of half solutions and all efforts to stop the massacres against the Syrian people," Prince Turki said. The OIC committee also urged the UN Security Council “to assume its full responsibilities to put an end to the violence and bloodshed taking place in Syria." The new defections from Assad's armed forces could encourage those awaiting a disintegration of Assad's army. But there has been little indication of any broader trend to desertion in the senior ranks of the armed forces, bound often to Assad by their Alawite background. A Syrian general, two colonels, two majors, a lieutenant and their families — altogether 199 people — crossed the border into Turkey overnigh. Thirteen Syrian generals are now in Turkey. Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued inside Syria, which has a 900 km border with Turkey, with rebel fighters killing dozens of soldiers in the last few days as they fought against army attacks on towns and villages in central, north and eastern Syria in the last several days, opposition sources said. — Agencies
