Dubai: The Syrian government has not carried out any of the terms of an Arab League accord, the Qatari prime minister has said, pledging that the League will not tolerate the "unacceptable" continuation of violence.
"The events taking place in Syria are painful and unacceptable," Shaikh Hamad Bin Jasem Bin Jaber Al Thani, whose nation currently chairs the Arab League, told Al Jazeera television in an interview.
Meanwhile, thousands of regime backers massed at a mosque in the Syrian capital for funeral prayers for policemen killed in a Damascus bombing, as the government vowed to respond with an "iron fist" to security threats.
Coffins bearing 11 policemen, covered with Syrian flags, were brought into the Al Hassan mosque for the prayers a day after the explosion ripped through a Damascus intersection.
The mourners outside the mosque chanted, "Freedom became terrorism. We are not scared of America, the mother of terrorism."
Others chanted, "the people want state of emergency," referring to the decades-old emergency laws that the regime lifted in April as part of reforms.
"We will hit back with an iron fist at anyone who tries to tamper with the security of the country or its citizens," said Interior Minister Ebrahim Al Shaar on state television.
Dahida Abdul Rahman, 50-year-old housewife at the prayers, said the Arab observers should be thrown out of the country. "Since they came, terrorist attacks started," she said.
The League mission is aimed at ensuring that President Bashar Al Assad follows through on his pledge to withdraw security forces from cities, release political prisoners and allow anti-government demonstrations.
Forces kill 10
"None of these things have been done, and not all observers were allowed in Syria, as there are many observers who were not allowed in by the Syrian government," Shaikh Hamad said.
"The observers' mission has been altered to delivering food and searching for missing persons, which is not supposed to be their mission," he said.
"If the killing does not stop immediately, I think having observers or not having them would be the same, and this even makes us part of what's taking place in Syria, and we don't want to be part of that," he said.
When Damascus was hit by the suicide bomb it left 26 people dead and 63 others wounded, according to the official news agency Sana.
Syrian security forces killed 10 people yesterday, Al Arabiya television reported. Also yesterday state news agency Sana said, a "terrorist group" blew up a pipeline transporting diesel in central Syria.
Recall not on agenda
An Arab League committee on Syria, which is to meet today in Cairo, will not discuss the possibility of recalling peace observers from the country, said the organisation's assistant chief Adnan Eisa.
"No Arab country has talked about the necessity of withdrawing the observers," he told reporters in Cairo. "
Eisa said 153 Arab observers were already in Syria and would be joined by 10 more Jordanians.
The Arab states want the observers to continue their mission, and that it be reinforced," he said. The Cairo-based Arab League will meet to discuss the findings of its monitors, who arrived in Syria December 26.
