Syria faces new Arab deadline on observers

Qatar's Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim (right) speaks with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi The Arab League on Sunday awaited Syria's response to a deadline to allow in observers to monitor the country's unrest, a day after the pan-Arab body slapped sanctions on senior Syrian officials .
The new deadline came as the death toll for Saturday and Sunday rose to at least 28 people across Syria, and after the UN Human Rights Council accused Damascus of "gross violations" of human rights.
However, an official in the Qatari capital Doha, where the ultimatum was issued late on Saturday, said no Syrian representative was expected in the Gulf state during the day to sign an accord.
The official, who requested anonymity, told AFP that Syria had asked for "new clarifications and further amendments to be made to the protocol which was proposed" to send observers.
However, if Syrian officials "still want to sign, they can come tomorrow to Cairo," the official added.
 An Arab League ministerial committee meeting in Doha on Saturday slapped 19 top Syrian officials with a ban on travel to Arab states in addition to setting the new deadline to accept observers.
"During the meeting we contacted Damascus... and we asked them to come tomorrow (Sunday) to sign" the protocol on sending observers, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani said.
"We are waiting for a reply," he added. "As Arabs we fear that if the situation continues things will get out of Arab control."
 Sheikh Hamad was speaking after a meeting to discuss Arab League sanctions against Damascus over its bloody crackdown on nearly nine months of anti-regime protests.
On the list of 19 Syrian officials banned from travel to Arab states and whose assets are being frozen by those countries are Assad's brother Maher, his cousin telecoms magnate Rami Makhluf, and military and intelligence figures.
Saturday's meeting also decided to cut by half all Arab flights to and from Syria effective from December 15, including those of the national carrier Syrian Air, a statement said.
On November 27, the Arab League approved sweeping sanctions against Assad's government over the crackdown -- the first time that the bloc has enforced punitive measures of such magnitude on a member.
The measures included an immediate ban on transactions with Damascus and its central bank and a freeze on Syrian government assets in Arab countries.
The vote on sanctions came after Damascus defied an earlier ultimatum to accept observers under an Arab League peace plan.
Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said last month that the wording of the text to send observers undermined the country's sovereignty because it "totally ignores the Syrian state, even coordination with the Syrian state."
On the ground, three children aged 11, 14 and 16, and at least two other civilians were killed on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based watchdog reported 11 civilians among 23 people killed on Saturday, most occurring in the northwestern province of Idlib, a focal point of anti-regime protests raging since March.
The unprecedented movement against Assad's regime has been spearheaded by peaceful demonstrators, but in recent months army deserters have formed a rebel Free Syrian Army which has inflicted growing losses on regular forces.
The United Nations says that more than 4,000 people have been killed in the crackdown and tens of thousands arrested. At least 12,400 people are also reported to have fled abroad.
In Geneva on Friday, an emergency meeting of the Human Rights Council passed a resolution "strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities."
Damascus rejected the resolution as "unjust" and said it was "prepared in advance by parties hostile to Syria."