Hezbollah denounces Arab League sanctions on Syria

November 29, 2011 - 18:52
Lebanon’s Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah has denounced the Arab League for its decision to impose sanctions on Syria. 

In a statement on Monday, Hezbollah accused the 22-memebr body of making an “unprecedented and dangerous” move, the state news agency SANA reported. 

Sanctions, approved on Sunday, include asset freeze, cutting transactions with the Syrian Central Bank, and an embargo on the investments for projects 

Damascus has censured the decision as “a betrayal of Arab solidarity.” 

Hezbollah said, “The Arab League's approval of these sanctions is a shameful thing” and criticized the measure as one against the regional body's laws and regulations and in violation of the principals of joint Arab efforts. 

On November 12 and amid Syria's pressing need for international support in the face of the dire situation it was facing, the Arab League held an emergency session in the Egyptian capital Cairo, voting to suspend the country's membership in the body. 

Hezbollah said enforcement of anti-Damascus sanctions was part of a U.S. policy that aimed to serve Washington's agenda in the Middle East. 

The restrictive measures, it said, was an act of “vengeance targeting all people in the region.” 

Syria has been experiencing unrest ever since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government. 

 On October 7, Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said around 1,100 members of the security forces and ordinary citizens had been killed by armed groups in the first seven months of the unrest, which began on March 15. 
 
The United Nations says 3,500 people, many of them members of the security forces, have been killed during the unrest. 
 
The Syrian government says outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists are the driving factor behind the unrest and deadly violence while the opposition accuses the security forces of being behind the killings. 

The Syrian government also says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians. 

In addition, Syrian state TV has broadcast reports showing seized weapons caches and confessions by terrorist elements describing how they obtained arms from foreign sources.