Arab foreign ministers meet Sunday to discuss whether to ask the United Nations to help their mission in Syria which has failed to end a 10-month crackdown on anti-government protests in which thousands have died. The proposal by Qatar is to invite UN technicians and human rights experts to help Arab monitors assess whether Syria is honoring a pledge to stop its crackdown, sources at the Arab League said. A source said it might request that UN staff helping the mission be Arabs. The foreign ministers, who will consider an initial report by the monitors, will also discuss measures to allow the mission to operate more independently of the Syrian authorities, media sources at the League said. The violence has continued since the monitors began working in Syria on Dec. 26, with scores of people reported killed. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al-Thani said Syria was not implementing the deal and monitors could not stay in Syria to “waste time”. The Syrian army had not withdrawn from cities and there had been no end to the killing, he said. Sources at the Arab League said ministers were likely to reaffirm support for the monitors, resisting calls to end what Syrian pro-democracy campaigners say is a toothless mission that merely buys more time for President Bashar Al-Assad to suppress his opponents. Syria said it was providing the monitors with all the facilities they needed. “What we are looking for is objectivity and professionalism,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said last week. No one should “rush to verdicts” on the mission's achievements, said the head of the monitoring operations room at the League's headquarters in Cairo, Adnan Al-Khudeir. He said the commission overseeing the monitors had the League's full support. The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the uprising against Assad. The Free Syrian Army, an armed opposition force composed mainly of army deserters, has joined the revolt. The Syrian government says “terrorists” have killed 2,000 members of the security forces during the uprising. Meanwhile, thousands of regime backers massed at a mosque in Damascus for funeral prayers for policemen killed in a 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, killing 26 people and wounding 63. Officials said the attack was a suicide bombing, the second in two weeks to hit the normally quiet Syrian capital.
