ALGIERS: Arab League foreign ministers are to meet in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Wednesday to discuss the Syria crisis, Algerian foreign ministry spokesman Amar Belani said.
"We have decided on a meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab League on November 16 at Rabat, on Syria..." on the sidelines of a forum between Turkey and the Arab nations, Belani told AFP on Sunday.
Belani said that at a meeting in Cairo on November 2, the Arab League's foreign ministers had decided to give Syria 15 days to implement a peace plan Damascus had agreed with the League.
Saturday's vote to suspend Syria from the Arab League was not consistent with that earlier decision, he added.
Earlier Sunday, Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci had suggested that the Arab League's suspension of Syria from its ranks was only temporary.
"The suspension of Syria is temporary and we will be able to lift it as quickly as possible," he said at a joint press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amer.
Medelci also said that Algeria would not be withdrawing its ambassador from Damascus, which the Arab League had suggested its members consider doing.
In Rabat, a Moroccan official on Sunday confirmed the meeting would take place, but without non-member Turkey taking part.
The agenda for Wednesday's meeting includes an assessment of the degree to which Syria had applied its November 2 agreement with the Arab League to end its crackdown on protests.
The plan included a commitment from Syria to pull back its troops from the cities that were the focus of the anti-government protests and to free demonstrators arrested since the start of the demonstrations.
The League's foreign ministers at a meeting in Cairo on Saturday voted 18-22 to suspend Syria with effect from November 16 over its failure to comply with the agreement.
The foreign ministers recommended the withdrawal of Arab envoys from Damascus and agreed on sanctions, while inviting "all currents in the Syrian opposition" to meet at its Cairo headquarters in Cairo.
According to the United Nations, the violence has so far left at 3,500 people dead since mid-March.
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