Arab committee meet to fine-tune Syria sanctions

An Arab League committee met on Wednesday to decide on a list of Syrian officials who will be banned from Arab countries and whose bank accounts will be frozen, a league official said.

The committee met in the Arab League’s Cairo headquarters to press ahead with sanctions against Damascus over a bloody crackdown on protesters who want the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

The meeting would also decide on when to implement a decision by Arab foreign ministers to end all flights to and from Syria, and a list of necessary foodstuffs that will be excluded from the ban on trade with Syria’s government.

Arab foreign ministers scheduled to meet in Doha on Saturday are to decide whether to adopt the committee’s proposals.

In an unprecedented move, the pan-Arab bloc on Sunday approved a raft of sanctions against Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly crackdown against the uprising.

The sanctions include freezing government assets, suspending cooperation with Syria’s central bank and halting funding for projects in the country.

In its most recent toll issued early November, the United Nations estimated that more than 3,500 people have been killed in the violence that has shaken Syrian since mid-March.