...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
18 countries agreed to the decision, while Leb, Yemen and Syria voted against it and Iraq abstained.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told al-Manar television, hours after the decision was announced, that the "the resolution taken by the vaporous Arab League is dangerous, because it was taken against a member state."
"These decisions will not help solve the crisis in Syria but will push it towards a very critical stage," he stressed.
The foreign minister added that "security in Syria preserves the security of the region."
On October, Russia and China on a European-backed draft resolution that would have threatened possible action against
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well...
non-permanent members Leb, South Africa, Brazil, and India abstained.
Arab League foreign ministers convened on Saturday for an emergency session to discuss Syria's failure to end a deadly crackdown on civilian protests.
Ministers made their way into the 22-member body's headquarters in Cairo to debate their response to Syria's defiance of an earlier League initiative calling for a cease-fire.
They walked past about 100 demonstrators, who echoed calls by Syria's opposition to suspend the country's membership in the 22-nation body -- a powerful symbolic blow to a nation that prides itself on being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.
Protesters carried placards reading "Freedom for the Syrian people" and "Arab leaders are garbage" as they chanted for the removal of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. They were joined by demonstrators from Yemen, protesting violent government crackdowns in their country.
Mansour told MTV station on Friday that "Syria's major role in the Arab world, (political) positions and policies force us to disagree on suspending its membership."
He wondered how Leb would want "to stand against a country that it has a security treaty with?"
Syria agreed to a peace plan last week brokered by the Arab League, but the violence has continued unabated, with November shaping up to be the bloodiest month yet in Syria's 8-month-old uprising. More than 250 Syrian civilians have been killed in the past 11 days as the regime besieges the rebellious city of Homs.
The U.N. estimates some 3,500 people have been killed in the Syrian crackdown since the uprising began eight months ago, inspired by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.