Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it was withdrawing its observers from Syria after an Arab monitoring mission failed to end 10 months of bloodshed, and called on the international community to exert "all possible pressure" on Damascus.
Hundreds of Syrians have been killed since the observers began their work in late December and political opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are demanding the Arab League refer the crisis to the United Nations Security Council.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby recommended to Arab foreign ministers on Sunday that a monitoring mission to Syria be extended, expanded and get more technical support.
The Saudi comments suggest, however, that the extension of a mission Syria's opposition has described as toothless will not be enough to satisfy everyone in the 22-member body and exposed a growing rift over the best way to approach the crisis that has shown little sign of easing after months of political pressure.
"My country will withdraw its monitors because the Syrian government did not execute any of the elements of the Arab resolution plan," Prince Saud al-Faisal told Arab foreign ministers at a closed door meeting in Cairo. The statement was obtained by Reuters after he spoke.
"We are calling on the international community to bear its responsibility, and that includes our brothers in Islamic states and our friends in Russia, China, Europe and the United States," Prince Saud said, calling for "all possible pressure" to push Syria to adhere to the Arab peace plan.
Saudi Arabia, the region's political and economic powerhouse, exerts enormous influence over other Gulf countries which tend to fall in line with its policies.
Arab diplomatic sources have said in recent weeks, however, that Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman are increasingly reluctant to step up pressure on Syria when they are facing protests at home.
Qatar, which has led calls for escalation against Syria, said it was time to review the whole mission and consider dispatching Arab peacekeeping troops to quell the violence that United Nations says has killed more than 5,000 people. Syria says 2,000 security personnel have been killed in the violence.
"The reality says that the bloodshed has not stopped and the killing machine is still working and violence is spread everywhere," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said in a statement.
"What is needed now is a full review of the work of this mission and a look into what results it achieved and if those results are convincing enough to continue or if the realities call for other options and one other option is .... to send Arab peacekeeping forces."
Qatar and Saudi Arabia, regional rivals of Syria and its ally Iran, are impatient for decisive action against Assad but military action against Assad would need unanimous backing and several states prefer a negotiated solution, League sources say.
The Security Council is also split on how to address the crisis, with Western powers demanding tougher sanctions and a weapons embargo, and Assad's ally Russia preferring to leave the Arabs to negotiate a peaceful outcome.
Suggestions to send in UN experts to support the Arab observers made little headway at the last meeting earlier this month and Damascus has said it would accept an extension of the observer mission but not an expansion in its scope.
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