Arab League gives Assad ultimatum to allow in observer mission

The Arab League has given Syria 24 hours to agree to allow an observer mission into the country, or it could face sanctions.

The bloodshed in the country continued, with activists reporting at least 15 people killed, including civilians and security forces.

Today’s threat was a humiliating blow to Damascus, a founding member of the Arab League.

It comes as international pressure mounts on President Bashar Assad to stop the brutal crackdown on an uprising against his regime. The UN says has at least 3,500 have been killed since mid-March.

Syria is the scene of the bloodiest crackdown against the Arab Spring’s eruption of protests. Deaths in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have numbered in the hundreds.

Libya’s toll is unknown and likely to be higher than Syria’s, but that conflict differed: Early on it became an outright civil war between two armed foes.

The Cairo-based Arab League called on Damascus to agree to an observer mission by Friday, or else the League will meet on Saturday to decide on sanctions.

In a statement released after the committee met, the group said punishment could include stopping trade with the Syrian government apart from strategic goods that affect the Syrian people.

Other sanctions could include stopping flights to Syria and ending dealings with Syria’s central bank.

The Arab League has already suspended Syria’s membership over the bloodshed and Syria’s failure to abide by an Arab peace plan it signed.

Also today, the European Union said protecting civilians caught up in Syria’s crackdown on anti-government protests “is an increasingly urgent and important aspect” of responding to the bloodshed there.

Alongside the diplomatic efforts, violence continued, with clashes reported between troops and army defectors near the town of Rastan and in Houla, both in the restive central province of Homs.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Co-ordination Committees said the toll included at least four civilians.

The EU stopped short of endorsing French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe’s call for EU-backed humanitarian corridors to allow aid groups a way in.

Mr Juppe called the situation in Syria “no longer tenable”.

He said he was in contact with partners in the United Nations, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Arab League about the possibility of setting up the humanitarian corridors.