"We cannot be there to waste time while the killing is continuing," Qatari prime minister says.
By REUTERSArab League monitors in Syria inspect 311(photo credit: REUTERS)
CAIRO - Syria is not implementing a deal with the Arab League aimed at halting violence in the country, the prime minister of Qatar said on Friday, adding that Arab League monitors could not stay there to "waste time."The Syrian army, required to pull of Syrian cities according to the deal, had not withdrawn, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said. He added there had been no end to killing during the 10 days spent in Syria by the Arab monitors.RELATED:Syria: 'We'll respond to attacks with iron fist' Arab World: Damascus’s theater of farce "With great regret, the news is not good," Sheikh Hamad told Al Jazeera television.
An Arab League committee is due on Sunday to discuss an initial report by the Arab observers who are checking Syria's compliance with the plan to halt Syrian President Bashar Assad's crackdown on nearly 10 months of unrest."We will listen to the report of the mission and then the Arab committee which will decide what we will do," Sheikh Hamad said. "We cannot be there to waste time while the killing is continuing," he added.The monitors began work on the streets on Dec. 26 to try to verify whether the government was keeping its promise to pull troops and tanks out of cities and free thousands of detainees.Sheikh Hamad said the observers had been sent after Syria had signed the protocol to monitor implementation. "Unfortunately, nothing has been implemented," he said.Click for full JPost coverage
