Arab League gives Syria deadline on observers

An Arab League ministerial committee handed down a travel ban on 19 Syrian officials to Arab states and has presented an ultimatum to Damascus to accept observers to monitor the unrest in the country.
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister, announced the new deadline for Syria to avoid sanctions after a meeting in Doha to discuss the measures decided against Damascus over its crackdown on eight months of protests.
"During the meeting we contacted Damascus... and we asked them to come tomorrow (to Doha) to sign" the protocol on sending observers to Damascus, said Jassim al Thani.


"We are waiting for a reply," he said. "As Arabs we fear that if the situation continues things will get out of Arab control."
The Arab League has also approved of cutting flights to Syria by 50 per cent.
The Arab League last Sunday approved sweeping sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's government over the crackdown, the first time that the bloc has enforced such measures against one of its own members.
The vote on sanctions came after Damascus defied an earlier ultimatum to accept observers under an Arab League peace plan and put an end to the eight-month crackdown.
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."
Ongoing violence
Syrian state agency on Sunday reported that a funeral procession was held for 13 soldiers who were killed by "terrorists".

"The martyrs were targaeted by the armed terrorist groups while they were in the line of duty in Damascus countryside," SANA news agency said.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Revolution General Commission, an activist group, reported that 39 people had been killed over the past two days. It added that November was the bloodiest month since the uprising started in March, with at least 734 civilians killed.
Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from neighbouring Jordan, said activists told her that troops raided the town of Tal Shihab in the southern province of Daraa on Sunday morning. They said heavy gunfire was heard and that mass and random arrests had taken place.
In Homs' Al Wa'ar neighbourhood, El-Shamayleh said activists had reported that "two cars carrying troops and Assad loyalists opened fire indiscriminately [on Sunday after midnight] and killed four members of the Teebeh family. They were in the street when they came under fire."