Syria: pressure mounts on Assad - Tuesday 15 October

guardian.co.uk

Syria

• Syria is trying to head off suspension from the Arab League which is due begin tomorrow. It is scrabbling to find the mandatory 15 of the 22 states onside to convene a meeting of League ambassadors in an attempt to stall, or overturn the suspension.

• Seven people have been killed in Syria today, including two children, according to the activist group, the Local Co-ordination Committees. Activists put the number of deaths on Monday at around 70, most of whom were soldiers, making it one of the bloodiest days of the uprising so far. Additionally, the e British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 unidentified dead bodies were delivered this morning to a hospital in the central city of Homs. It said the bodies could be people kidnapped by the Shabiha (armed militia loyal to Assad) over the past two days.

• Jordan's King Abdullah has become the first Arab leader to call for Syria's president Bashar al-Assad to step down. In carefully crafted remarks to the BBC he said: "If I were in his shoes, I'd step down." The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, welcomed Abdullah's intervention.

• The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said his country no longer has confidence in the regime in Syria and has warned President Assad that his brutal crackdown on opposition groups threatens to place him on a list of leaders that "feed on blood". He also urged the Syrian president to punish those responsible for attacks on Turkish diplomatic missions in Syria. Turkey also cancelled plans for oil exploration in Syria and warned it may consider terminating electricity exports to its neighbour if tensions continue to escalate.

• The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), in Moscow for talks with Bashar al-Assad's most significant ally, criticised Russia for playing a "a very negative role" in the country. It also called for the introduction of iUN peacekeepers to Syria. On the other hand, Russia called on all Syrian opposition groups to reject violence. Nevertheless, both sides reportedly described the talks as positive and said there would be more talks. Meanwhile, a majority of Kuwaiti MPs have voted in favour of its government recognising the SNC.

• The Free Syrian Army has announced the formation of a military council headed by Colonel Riad Assad. An officer from the FSA told Emilie Hokayem, senior fellow for regional security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, that the creation of the council was partly to persuade the SNC to harden its position on the use of force – an issue over which the two groups are divided.

Continue Reading: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/nov/15/syria-pressure-mounts-on-assad-live-updates