Tens of thousands of pro-regime demonstrators gathered in a Damascus square Sunday to protest the Arab League's vote to suspend Syria over its bloody crackdown on the country's eight-month-old uprising.
The protests came after a night of demonstrator assaults on the diplomatic offices of countries critical of the Syrian regime, including break-ins at the Saudi and Qatari embassies and attacks at Turkish representations across the country.
Saturday's Arab League decision was a sharp rebuke to a regime that prides itself as a bastion of Arab nationalism, but it was unlikely to immediately end a wave of violence that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
The protests and embassy attacks are likely to stoke further anger in Arab states against the regime in Damascus. Arab disapproval in itself may not seriously damage President Bashar Assad's hold on power, but if Syria antagonizes Gulf states much further, it risks having them build up the Syrian opposition into a unified body which can win international recognition as happened during Libya's civil war earlier this year.
By: Brant
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