Arab Ministers to Call on Syria to Halt Violence Foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League meeting in Baghdad will ask their heads of state to urge the Syrian regime to halt its crackdown on civilians and allow humanitarian groups into the country. A draft of the recommendations obtained by The Associated Press mostly echoes earlier Arab League proposals to end the one-year conflict in Syria where the U.N. says more than 9,000 people have so far died. The ministers are meeting in Baghdad on Wednesday and the heads of state will gather on Thursday. Shiite-ruled Iraq is hosting the summit to show that it has emerged from years of turmoil and American occupation. But a massive security operation in Baghdad mirrors fears that Sunni militants could try and disrupt the meetings. BAGHDAD (AP) - The eerie quiet enveloping the road from the airport to the Saddam Hussein-era palace where Arab leaders will meet this week cannot conceal Baghdad's grim realities. Behind the freshly planted palm trees and lawns are concrete walls closing off nearby neighborhoods and troops in full combat gear deployed to prevent any attacks. For Arab leaders who seek military intervention in Syria, the Iraqi capital provides a cautionary tale, with violence and sectarian hatreds persisting nearly a decade after the U.S. invasion. Iraq security forces stand guard in central Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, March 27, 2012. The Iraqi government has tightened its security measures for the Arab League summit in Baghdad. The Iraqi capital provides a cautionary tale, with violence and sectarian hatreds persisting nearly a decade after the U.S. invasion. Gulf Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pushing behind the scenes for more assertive action to end the year-old conflict in Syria. Privately, they see little benefit in the Arab League's efforts to reach a peaceful settlement and prefer instead to see a small core of nations pooling together to act on their own. Among the options they are considering are arming the rebels and creating a safe haven for the opposition alongside the Turkish-Syrian border to serve as a humanitarian sphere or staging ground for anti-regime forces. The summit, gathering the members of the 22-nation Arab League, is likely to take a less dramatic step, issuing a condemnation of civilian deaths in Syria's crackdown on the uprising and a call for President Bashar Assad to stop all violence and allow street protests. But Gulf nations apparently believe Assad won't abide by those demands and that, if he defies the League, they will have diplomatic cover to take stronger action. Their bullish approach has its roots in their hopes that by forcing Assad's fall they can pull Sunni-majority Syria out of its alliance with Iran and break the belt of Tehran's influence that stretches through Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean. Like Iraq, Syria has its own dangerous sectarian divide, between the majority Sunnis who largely back the opposition, and the Alawite minority, a Shiite offshoot that dominates power. A Sunni-ruled Syria would give the U.S.-allied Gulf Arabs a significant victory in their long-running power struggle with non-Arab, mainly Shiite Iran. But that prospect worries Iraq, with its sectarian divides between a Shiite majority that now holds power and a Sunni minority that resents its sidelining. "A Sunni regime in Damascus will encourage Iraq's Sunni provinces to push for autonomy and maybe even secession," warned Iraqi political analayst Hassan Kamil. That will in turn add more problems for Iraqi Shiites and draw more Iranian and Saudi interference in Iraq's affairs.