CAIRO, Jan 6 (Reuters) - 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to the deal, had not withdrawn, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani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.
"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 President Bashar al-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.
(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Jon
Boyle)