Arab League

France is seeking international support for a proposal to establish "humanitarian corridors" in Syria to get aid to besieged areas of the country, where the government has turned its guns on protesters and armed insurgents demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad. In a radio interview Thursday with France Inter, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he had raised the idea with the United Nations and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and would discuss it with Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo this week.

Syrian opposition activists reported at least 24 people were killed Saturday as the deadline for Syria to begin implementing an Arab League-sponsored peace plan expired. The 22-nation Arab bloc had given President Bashar Assad until Saturday to start putting into place a plan that calls for a withdrawal of troops, a release of political prisoners and a dialogue with the opposition. There was no official word from the league as to whether it believed Syria had complied with the demands.

An Arab initiative to end violence in Syria appeared at an impasse Sunday, as Damascus and Arab foreign ministers failed to agree on a formula that would allow monitors into the country. The Arab League rejected what it called a Syrian effort to "change radically" the league's peace blueprint, which calls for the government of President Bashar Assad to remove troops from cities and towns and conduct talks with the opposition. Syrian officials repeated concerns that the league was being used as a "tool" and "pretext" for Western intervention.

Opposition activists said Syrian security forces killed at least 17 people Friday as President Bashar Assad's government faced an Arab League deadline of Saturday for implementing a faltering peace plan. Demonstrators across Syria chanted antigovernment slogans and called on foreign nations to expel Syrian ambassadors, a move that would further isolate Assad. Damascus and Arab League representatives were said to be haggling about the terms of an observer mission to be sent into Syria, where human rights groups say security forces have responded brutally to eight months of largely peaceful protests.

Arab foreign ministers Wednesday gave Syria three days to cease what one league official called its "bloody repression" against its people or face economic sanctions, the latest sign of President Bashar Assad's growing isolation. The move by ministers meeting in Rabat, Morocco, came as Syria's humiliating suspension from the Arab League became effective. The 22-member organization on Saturday decided it would suspend Syria by Wednesday if it did not implement a league-brokered peace plan.

Syria's increasingly isolated government fought to maintain its grasp on power in the face of bitter criticism from neighbors and former allies who questioned the right of President Bashar Assad to continue ruling his country after months of bloody repression. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former supporter of Assad, declared that Syria was on "the edge of the cliff" in a blunt, personal message to the embattled president. "Those who fire on their own people will go down in history as leaders who feed on blood," warned Erdogan, who also referred to Assad by his first name, a show of disrespect.

Syria has been the outlier in the Arab Spring, with President Bashar Assad holding on to power while other autocrats in the region have been ousted — or worse — one after another. But now that the reforms he promised have failed to materialize, Assad is losing the support of other Arab leaders. That development doesn't guarantee that he will step aside, but it makes it more likely. And it vindicates the case for Western sanctions. Over the weekend, the Arab League suspended Syria's membership in the organization, two weeks after a delegation from the group reached an agreement with Assad.

Syrian President Bashar Assad faced heightened economic and political pressures Monday, as Europe imposed a new round of financial sanctions and King Abdullah II of Jordan called on the embattled autocrat to step down. Meanwhile, the Arab League, which on Saturday moved to suspend Syria because of its failure to implement a league-brokered peace deal, said it was preparing to send a delegation of up to 500 observers into Syria. Details were still being worked out with Damascus, the league's secretary-general, Nabil Elaraby, told reporters in Cairo.

Syrian President Bashar Assad finds himself in an unenviable position reminiscent of the late Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's: an autocrat who may fall victim to the shifting geopolitical landscape in an "Arab Spring" that is reshaping the balance of power in the Middle East. Once a wellspring of Arab pride and nationalism, Syria is confronting the changing dynamics of the region as old alliances fade and new brokers emerge, most notably the tiny emirate of Qatar, which in recent years has boldly challenged traditional powers with a clever mix of wealth and populism through its Al Jazeera network.