Arab League to hold emergency meeting on Syria massacre

Assad regime blames al-Qaeda for attacks that left more than 90 people dead

Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League meeting in March in Baghdad, Iraq (photo credit: AP/Karim Kadim)
Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League meeting in March in Baghdad, Iraq (photo credit: AP/Karim Kadim)

Arab League foreign ministers are to hold an emergency meeting to discuss this week’s massacre in Houla, Syria, where UN observers estimate over 90 people were killed, including at least 32 children, at the hands of the Bashar Assad regime.

“Kuwait will contact members of the Arab League to hold an emergency ministerial meeting to study the situation and take measures to put an end to the oppressive practices against the Syrian people,” the country’s foreign ministry said on Sunday in a statement.

The ministry condemned the “brutal crime carried out by the Syrian regime forces in the town of Houla which resulted in the killing of dozens, most of them children and women.”

The statement also urged the international community “to assume its responsibility to stop the bloodshed.”

Kuwait currently holds the Arab’s League’s rotating presidency.

Hundreds of Kuwaitis including several MPs rallied outside the Syrian embassy on Saturday to condemn the massacre, according to the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya media outlet. Protesters demanded that the Kuwaiti government send arms to Syrian opposition forces.

The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates was the first to call for an Arab League meeting regarding the massacre. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a statement on Saturday that “the targeting of the civilians could not be condoned as it is a violation to our humanity, and signifies the tragic failure of our collective Arab and international efforts to put an end to the violence against the civilians in Syria.”

The Syrian government maintained over the weekend that the massacre in Houla was the work of al-Qaeda-linked rebels, a charge which opposition forces vehemently rejected.

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