Saudi Arabia's Gulf allies joined it in pulling out of an Arab League monitoring team to Syria today, further damaging the credibility of a mission which has failed to halt more than 10 months of violence.
Syria risks becoming an Arab and international pariah for its harsh response to an uprising against president Bashar al-Assad in which thousands of people have been killed.
The Arab League demanded on Sunday that Dr Assad step down in favour of a unity government to end the bloodshed, but said Arab observers should stay in Syria for another month.
Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal said at the time his country was quitting the mission because Syria had not implemented an earlier Arab peace plan. He urged Muslim states as well as Russia, China, Europe and the United States, to exert "all possible pressure" on Syria to ensure its compliance.
"The GCC states have decided to respond to the decision of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to withdraw its monitors from the Arab League delegation to Syria," the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement.
It said the council was "certain the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue, and that the Syrian regime would not abide by the Arab League's resolutions."
The Arab League demand for a change of government in Syria puts more pressure on the UN Security Council to overcome its divisions and take a stand on the bloodletting there.
The Arab League's demand for a change of government in Syria puts more pressure on the UN security council to overcome its divisions and take a stand on the bloodshed.
In an initial response, an official Syrian source told the state news agency Sana yesterday that the Arab initiative was a "conspiracy against Syria" and "flagrant interference" in its affairs.
The Arab observers deployed late last month to assess Syria's compliance with an earlier Arab League plan.
"There has been some progress, but there has not been immediate or complete implementation as the Arab initiative requires," Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said today, adding that he would name a special envoy to Syria this week.
A Syrian opposition group condemned the mission's leader, Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, for a report in which he highlighted violence by Assad's adversaries as well as by his security forces.
The Syria-based Local Coordination Committees criticized Dabi for equating "the butcher and the victim," saying he had "blurred the monumental hardship that millions of Syrians experience every day while they rise to reach freedom, dignity, democracy and a wise system of governance."
It said the security forces had killed 36 people, including three children, on Monday. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the civilian death toll at 26.
Sana reported the burials of nine military or law enforcement "martyrs" the same day.
In the city of Homs, soldiers were stationed behind sand barriers at street corners, most shops were closed and residents were nervous, according to a Reuters reporter taken there on a government-organized visit.
Scattered shooting was a reminder of the struggle between Assad's government army and rebels who now control most of it.
The bloodshed in Syria, whose revolt was inspired by others that have toppled three Arab leaders, has damaged Dr Assad's standing in the world, with Iran among his few remaining allies.
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed since the revolt erupted in March. Damascus says "terrorists" have killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police.
Reuters