CAIRO: The People’s Assembly (PA) committee for Arab affairs called Monday for freezing Egypt’s relations with Syria in condemnation of the Syrian regime’s "barbaric crimes" against protesters.
Egypt had recalled its ambassador to Syria on Sunday, who is to stay in Cairo until further notice. In response, Syria withdrew its ambassador to Egypt.
Some MPs called for completely cutting ties with Syria until Bashar Al-Assad’s “massacres” against the protesters stop.
A delegation representing the Syrian opposition attended the PA session. They requested to change the term "crisis" in the statement referring to the situation in Syria to "revolution." PA speaker Saad El-Katatny ordered the change immediately.
The committee read out its statement to the PA, accusing Al-Assad of steering the country towards a civil war by using the army to crack down on the protesters.
The PA rejected any foreign interference to end the violence in Syria, to avoid turning Syria into another Libya or Iraq where foreign powers would only seek to serve their own interests and not the people’s.
The PA said it will exert all efforts to help unite the Syrian opposition, forcing international powers to recognize the opposition as the true authority in Syria, instead of Al-Assad’s regime.
It added that it would approach countries supporting the Syrian regime including Russia, China and Iran, to help them realize that the deterioration of the situation in Syria will affect their interests in the region.
