The League, which for decades has spurned ordering action against a member state, has suspended Syria and threatened unspecified sanctions for ignoring the deal it had signed up to.
Syria has turned its tanks and troops on civilian protesters, as well as on armed insurgents challenging Assad’s 11-year rule. The United Nations says more than 3,500 people have been killed.
“Syria has not offered anything to move the situation forward,” said a senior Arab diplomat at the League, adding that it was considering what kind of sanctions to impose.
“The position of the Arab states is almost unified. We all agree ... that the situation does not lead to civil war and that no foreign intervention takes place,” he said.
The Nov. 12 agreement to suspend Syria was backed by 18 of the pan-Arab organization’s 22 members. Lebanon, where Syria for many years had a military presence, and Yemen, battling its own uprising, opposed it. Iraq, whose Shiite-led government is wary of offending Syria’s main ally Iran, abstained.
Arab ministers were meeting in a Cairo suburb instead of the League’s headquarters in Tahrir Square, occupied by protesters after days of clashes with police in nearby streets.
Khaled Al-Habasi, an adviser to Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby, said the body was “working on uniting the Syrian opposition on a vision regarding the future of Syria during the transitional period” and drawing up sanctions.
Earlier this month, the League asked Syrian opposition groups to submit their ideas for a transition of power ahead of a planned bigger conference on Syria’s future.
“There are many ideas and suggestions for sanctions that can be imposed on the Syrian regime,” said one Arab government representative at the League, who asked not to be identified.
These included imposing a travel ban on Syrian officials, freezing bank transfers or funds in Arab states related to Assad’s government and stopping Arab projects in Syria, he said.
The decision to draft economic sanctions was taken at a meeting on Nov. 16 in Morocco, stepping up pressure on the Arab state. Damascus agreed to the Arab plan on Nov. 2, but the crackdown continued and Syria requested amendments to a plan to send Arab monitors to assess events at first-hand.
France called on Wednesday for a “secured zone to protect civilians” in Syria, the first time a major Western power has suggested international intervention on the ground.
France outlined a proposal on Thursday for a humanitarian corridor to be put in place, and said the zone could be protected by armed “observers” but ruled out direct military intervention in Syria’s unrest.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said the zone could be carved out either with the approval of President Bashar Assad’s government or organized by international observers.
Juppe met the head of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) in Paris on Wednesday and said he would propose ways to help civilians in Syria to the European Union next week.
“There are two possible ways: That the international community, Arab League and the United Nations can get the regime to allow these humanitarian corridors, but if that isn’t the case we’d have to look at other solutions ... with international observers,” Juppe told France Inter radio.
Juppe ruled out military intervention, but when asked whether humanitarian convoys would need military protection he said:
“Of course ... by international observers, but there is no question of a military intervention in Syria,” he said.
“For us, there is no possible humanitarian aid without an international mandate,” Juppe said.
He added that he had spoken to his international partners at the United Nations and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and would speak to the Arab League later on Thursday.
France, which was the first Western country to recognize the opposition in Libya early in 2011, has been championing the cause of pro-democracy protesters in Syria and leading calls for a UN Security Council resolution to condemn the government’s crackdown on them.
The United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in the uprising, triggered by Arab revolts which have toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Paris was also behind the UN Security Council resolution to create a no-fly zone over Libya that permitted foreign military forces, including NATO, to use “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.
Arabs have shown no appetite so far for following a similar route with Syria, which neighbors Israel and lies on the faultlines of several interlocking conflicts in the Middle East.