BEIRUT: Syria looked further isolated Monday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II becoming the first Arab leader to openly call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, as the first incidence of major armed conflict between Assad loyalists and armed defectors claimed 40 lives on the Syrian-Jordanian border.“I believe, if I were in his shoes, I would step down,” King Abdullah told the BBC.

“I would step down and make sure whoever comes [after] me has the ability to change the status quo that we’re seeing.”

Abdullah’s advice to Assad came two days before an Arab League decision to suspend Damascus from attending its meetings takes effect. A meeting scheduled in the Moroccan capital Rabat Wednesday aimed to further discuss Syria’s eight-month crisis is likely to enforce the suspension agreed at an emergency meeting in Cairo Saturday, after Syria failed to implement an Arab agreement to remove troops from the streets, release political prisoners and open dialogue with opposition.

In moves aimed at further isolating Syria Monday, the European Union extended sanctions, but Russia maintained its support, saying the Arab League had made the wrong move and leveled accusations against the West of inciting Assad’s opponents.

Despite the diplomatic pressure, there was no letup in violence.
A battle erupted in the flashpoint southern province of Deraa between regime forces and suspected army deserters, killing at least 16 civilians and 19 regime forces, in the most serious case of armed conflict since the uprising began.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights the civilians were killed by gunfire from checkpoints manned by security forces across Deraa.

Activists told Reuters troops backed by armor had killed 20 people including army defectors, insurgents and civilians in an assault on Khirbet Ghazaleh in the Hauran Plain, and that fighting then ensued in the town. The activists said a similar number of troops were killed.

The troops attacked Khirbet Ghazaleh, 20 km north of the border, on the main highway between Amman and Damascus, after army defectors attacked a security police bus at a highway intersection near the town, the activists said.

“Members of the [defectors’] brigade fought back when the army attacked and Bedouin from nearby villages also rushed to help Khirbet Ghazaleh,” said one of the activists, who gave his name as Abu Hussein.

The Hauran Plain, an area of flat farmland that also borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, was the first outlying area to erupt in street protests against Assad’s autocratic rule at the start of the uprising in March. Tanks and troops have been deployed across the region to crush the revolt since then.
Elsewhere in Syria, up to 13 people were killed, including a child, according to the activist network the Local Coordination Committees.

Security police shot dead activist Amin Abdo al-Ghothani in front of his 9-year-old son at a roadblock outside the town of Inkhil, the Local Coordination Committees said.

In Homs, residents said renewed tank shelling killed a teenager and wounded eight people in the restive Bab Amro district. Students in the Damascus suburb of Erbin chanted “God is greater than the oppressor,” according to a YouTube video.

According to U.N. estimates more than 3,500 people have been killed in the violence that has swept Syria since mid-March when protests against the regime first erupted in Deraa.
Other activist groups put the figure at over 4,000.

Damascus says armed “terrorist” gangs have killed 1,100 soldiers and police, but Syria’s ban on most foreign media makes it hard to verify events on the ground.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Monday the League’s decision was “an extremely dangerous step” at a time when Damascus was implementing an Arab deal to end violence and start talks with the opposition.
Syria has called for an emergency Arab League summit in an apparent effort to forestall its suspension.

Nabil Elaraby, the organization’s secretary-general, said he had delivered the request to rulers of Arab League states and 15 members would have to approve in order to hold a summit, according to Egypt’s state news agency MENA.

The League’s suspension is a particularly bitter blow for Assad who has always championed Syria’s role as the bastion of pan-Arab unity under the Arab nationalist Baath party.

Adding to the injury, the Cairo-based League plans to meet Syrian dissident groups Tuesday.
Even so, Elaraby said Sunday it was too soon to consider recognizing the Syrian National Council as the country’s legitimate authority.

Elaraby met representatives of Arab civil society groups Monday and agreed to send a 500-strong fact-finding committee, including military personnel, to Syria as part of efforts to end the regime’s crackdown on demonstrators and dissenters.
“Syria agreed to receive the committee,” said Ibrahim al-Zafarani, of the Arab Medical Union.

Moallem said Syria had withdrawn troops from urban areas, released prisoners and offered an amnesty to armed insurgents under an initiative agreed with the Arab League two weeks ago.
Moallem described Washington’s support for the Arab League action as “incitement,” but voiced confidence that Russia and China would continue to block Western efforts to secure U.N. Security Council action, let alone any foreign intervention.
“The Libya scenario will not be repeated,” he said.

It was the Arab League’s decision to suspend Libya and call for a no-fly zone that helped persuade the U.N. Security Council to authorize a NATO air campaign to protect civilians, which also aided rebels who ousted and killed Moammar Gadhafi. However, the League’s decision on Syria is different. The Arab ministers have carefully worded their latest statement on Syria and said Damascus was “suspended from attending the organization’s meetings.” Syria still maintains presence at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo through its representative, Ambassador Youssef Ahmad.

Moallem apologized for attacks on Saudi, Turkish, French and Qatari diplomatic missions in the aftermath of the Arab League’s decision.
“We will take the most resolute stance against these attacks and we will stand by the Syrian people’s rightful struggle,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Turkish parliament, saying Damascus could no longer be trusted.

Non-Arab Turkey, after long courting Assad, has lost patience with its neighbor. It now hosts the main Syrian opposition and has given refuge to defecting Syrian soldiers.
“The implementation of the Arab plan must be accompanied by the securing of borders by neighboring countries,” Moallem said. “I mean here specifically the flow of weapons from Turkey and the transfer of money to the leaders of armed groups.”

Meanwhile, the European Union extended penalties to 18 more Syrians linked with the crackdown on dissent and approved plans to stop Syria accessing funds from the European Investment Bank.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was in touch with the Arab League to work on an approach to Syria, but the 27-nation body appears set against military intervention.

“This is a different situation from Libya,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in Brussels, where European Union foreign ministers were meeting. “There is no United Nations Security Council resolution and Syria is a much more complex situation.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country joined China to block a U.N. resolution critical of Syria in October, criticized the Arab League’s decision.

Russia, an arms supplier to the Syrians, has urged Assad to implement reforms but opposes sanctions and has accused the United States and France of discouraging dialogue in Syria.
“There has been and continues to be incitement of radical opponents [of Assad] to take a firm course for regime change and reject any invitations to dialogue,” Lavrov said.

The opposition Syrian Revolution General Commission condemned Monday Russia’s objection to the Arab League decision, and said that Moscow’s position “comes to assert its blind support to the criminal regime.”
“The Syrian people will not forget any stance which supports bloodshed and contributes to extending the life of this illegitimate criminal regime,” the group said in a statement obtained by The Daily Star.

“It appears that Russia has not learned the lessons of Libya, when it decided to support Moammar Gadhafi’s fallen regime. It is now repeating the same mistake with the Syrian people … by supporting a regime whose crimes exceeded those of Gadhafi and all other dictators,” the statement said.

The Arab League also plans to impose unspecified economic and political sanctions on Syria and has urged its member states to recall their ambassadors from Damascus.
Assad still has some support at home, especially from his own minority Alawite sect and Christians wary of sectarian conflict or Sunni Muslim domination if he were to be toppled.

Despite some defections, the Syrian military has not emulated its counterparts in Egypt and Tunisia in abandoning long-serving presidents faced with popular discontent.
The government has acknowledged that sanctions are hurting, but it is not clear whether this will force any policy change.