CAIRO/ AMMAN: Arab states voted Sunday to impose economic sanctions on Syria immediately, in response to President Bashar Assad’s failure to halt a violent crackdown on an eight-month uprising against his rule.

Qatar said that if Arab nations failed to resolve the crisis, other foreign powers might intervene.

Nineteen of the Arab League’s 22 members voted for sanctions which include travel bans on Syrian officials, freezing Syrian government assets, halting trade dealings with the central bank and stopping Arab investment.

“The decision should be executed immediately,” Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a news conference after he chaired a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

The Arab League has for decades avoided imposing sanctions on its members but has been spurred into action by the scale of bloodshed during Syria’s crackdown and by the failure of Damascus to implement an Arab peace plan.

The Arab peace plan called for sending in Arab monitors, withdrawing Syrian troops from residential areas and starting talks between the government and opposition. Damascus ignored several Arab League deadlines.

Arabs have said they want a regional solution and do not want foreign intervention in Syria. France became the first major power to seek international involvement last week when it called for “humanitarian corridors” to protect civilians.

Sheikh Hamad said foreign powers might intervene if they did not consider Arabs “serious” in their bid to end the crisis.

“All the work we are doing is to avoid this interference,” he said, adding that the League could itself seek international intervention “if the Syrians do not take us seriously.”

Hundreds of people, including civilians, soldiers and army deserters, have been killed in Syria this month, in unrest inspired by uprisings that overthrew leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

The new sanctions could plunge Syria deeper into economic crisis, although the League said measures were not intended to hurt ordinary people.

“This is a very sad and unfortunate day for me,” the Qatari minister said. “I had hoped the Syrian brothers … would stop the violence and release the political detainees.”

Bahrain and Qatar also called on their citizens Sunday to leave Syria “as soon as possible,” after the United Arab Emirates also advised its citizens to stay away.

Qatar has been at the forefront of the drive to end the violence, backed by other Gulf Arab states.

Lebanon, which for years had a Syrian military presence on its soil, voted against sanctions, as did Iraq, which neighbors Syria and Iran. Baghdad had said before the meeting it would not impose sanctions.

“Iraq has reservations about this decision. For us, this decision … will harm the interests of our country and our people as we have a large community in Syria,” Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi told Reuters.

Non-Arab Turkey attended the Cairo meeting. Foreign Minister Ahmad Davutoglu said Ankara would act in unison with Arabs.

“When civilians are killed in Syria and the Syrian regime increases its cruelty to innocent people, it should not be expected for Turkey and the Arab League to be silent,” Davutoglu said, according to Turkey’s state news agency.

“We hope the Syrian government will get our message and the problem will be solved within the family,” he said, adding that the region did not want a repeat of events in Iraq and Libya, two states where international powers intervened.

During Libya’s uprising, an Arab League call for a no-fly zone led to a U.N. Security Council resolution, which in turn paved the way for NATO airstrikes on Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.

Against a backdrop of mounting pressure, violence continued inside the country Sunday, with activists reporting at least 23 civilians killed, including seven in the flashpoint region of Homs that has been under siege for several weeks.

A government official said Syrian forces also shot and wounded a Syrian woman as she and her family crossed a fence into neighboring Jordan.

The official said Jordanian border patrols fired in the air to help the three-member family get away but did not exchange fire with the Syrian army.

The woman, wounded in her leg, was taken to a nearby hospital.

About 500 Syrian refugees and 100 army and police deserters have fled to Jordan since the outset of the eight-month uprising, which has seen upward of 3,500 people killed according to the latest U.N. estimates.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague Sunday praised the Arab League’s move to impose sweeping sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad and called for the U.N. to back up the bloc’s decision.

“We welcome the Arab League’s leadership in seeking an end to the horrific violence in Syria,” said Hague in a statement issued by the Foreign Office Sunday.

“Today’s unprecedented decision to impose sanctions demonstrates that the regime’s repeated failure to deliver on its promises will not be ignored and that those who perpetrate these appalling abuses will be held to account,” he added.