DOHA: An Arab League ministerial committee on Saturday slapped 19 Syrian officials with a ban on travel to Arab states and gave Damascus until Sunday to accept observers to monitor the country's unrest.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani announced the deadline after a meeting in Doha to discuss a set of Arab League sanctions decided against Damascus over its bloody crackdown on months of anti-regime protests.
The meeting issued a list of 19 Syrian officials banned from traveling to Arab countries and whose assets are being frozen by those countries.
"During the meeting we contacted Damascus... and we asked them to come tomorrow (to Doha) to sign" the protocol on sending observers to Damascus, the prime minister said.
"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 last Sunday approved sweeping sanctions against Assad's government over the crackdown -- the first time that the bloc has enforced punitive measures of such magnitude on one of its members.
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 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."
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