Syria calls for emergency Arab summit, 11 killed

Syria countered the Arab League's suspension of its membership by calling for an immediate Arab summit to deal with the ongoing crisis and explore venues for defusing it. The Syrian government’s call came through SANA which criticized the recent Arab League move.    

Speaking under anonymity, a senior government official in Damascus said the government is still keen to meet with the Arab investigation committee. He also challenged the Arab League secretary to implement decisions recently taken regarding the Syrian crisis.    

He however insisted that the League representatives meet with government officials to discuss what he termed as “flows of the Arab initiative”. He criticized the initiative on grounds that it lacks appropriate mechanisms already decided by the League itself.    

Demonstrators gathered Sunday in front of the Syrian embassy in Beirut denouncing the Arab League decision to suspend Syria.     

"The Arab League is dead," read one of the banners.    

The embassy spokesperson assured the crowd that Syria was doing well and all conspiracies to topple Assad's regime were doomed to failure.    

On the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced that 11 civilians were killed on Sunday by security forces.

On Saturday, Arab foreign ministers decided to suspend the Syrian delegations’ activities in Arab league meetings, calling for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus in light of the regime’s continued failure to implement the Arab initiative.

The Arab initiative was signed on Nov. 2 as bid for peace that called for the withdrawal of the Syrian Army from city streets, an end to the crackdown on protesters, the release of all political prisoners and the launch of dialogue between the opposition and the government within two weeks.