GCC Ministers to Meet on Syria

Foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will meet in the Saudi capital later this week to discuss developments in Syria, Oman's foreign minister said on Monday.

The announcement came just two days after China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning a deadly crackdown by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime on nearly 11 months of protests.

"The foreign ministers of the GCC will meet in Riyadh... to debate and exchange views on the situation in Syria," Yussef bin Alawi told AFP.

The meeting will be held on Saturday, ahead of an Arab League ministerial meeting in Cairo, and is expected to focus on "the situation after the failure of the U.N." to adopt a Security Council resolution supporting a League plan to end the Syria crisis, Alawi said.

The Arab League, which suspended an observer mission in Syria because of an upsurge in the violence there, is also due to meet in the Egyptian capital over the weekend.

Thirteen countries voted for the U.N. resolution to end the crackdown in Syria, where activists say at least 6,000 people have been killed since the protests against Assad's regime erupted in mid-March last year.