Arab League to meet Sunday on Syria: Turkish FM

ISTANBUL: Foreign ministers from the Arab League and Turkey will meet in Cairo Sunday to discuss how to react to Syria's failure to respond to an ultimatum for an observer mission, Turkey said Friday.

Anatolia news agency quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying at Ankara airport that he would be attending the meeting, adding that Turkey already had some measures in hand against Damascus.

"We are going to harmonise them with those prepared by the Arab League," he added.

Earlier Davutoglu said that Syria's silence as the deadline ran out raised fears that Damascus was trying to conceal a worsening humanitarian situation.

He described the ultimatum to accept a mission of several hundred observers or face sanctions as a last chance for President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Syria was expected to say 'yes' to the observers... unless there is a reality it hides about the situation in Syrian cities," Davutoglu was quoted as saying by Anatolia. "As it said 'no', it increased... the concerns on the humanitarian situation," he said.

Speaking later, he said it was difficult to ascertain how to act on the humanitarian aspect. "But what is important right now are the economic and political measures we are going to take," he added.

Humanitarian organisations and journalists have had very little access to much of Syria since the regime started cracking down on protests in March, killing at least 3,500 people, according to the United Nations.

"It is a last chance, a new chance for Syria," Davutoglu had told reporters in Istanbul shortly before the 1100 GMT deadline for Assad's regime to comply with the notice.

"We think it is now vital to put an end to the suffering of the Syrian people... and the bloodshed," he said at a joint press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.

The new Arab warning was issued Thursday at a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo, where the 22-member bloc also for the first time called on the UN to help resolve the crisis.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Jordan's King Abdullah II have both called on Assad to quit over the violence.

"I hope that Syria will sign this accord," Judeh said, referring to the Arab peace plan, adding that it represented "the collective will of the Arab world".

Davutoglu warned that Syria would be isolated by Turkey, Arab states and the entire international community if it rejected the Arab proposals, and warned that Ankara could adopt further measures against the regime.

"Today is a day for an historic decision... and is a test of the good will of the Syrian administration," he said after talks with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi. (AFP)