The Arab League said today it had rebuffed a request by Damascus to amend plans for a 500-strong monitoring mission to Syria as President Bashar al-Assad vowed to continue his crackdown.
An Arab League deadline for Syria to end its repression of unrest passed with no sign of violence abating, and Dr Assad said he had no choice but to pursue his military crackdown on street protesters, who seek an end to 41 years of his family rule.
Egypt's state news agency reported the Arab League rejected Syria's request in a letter from the Secretary General Nabil Elaraby to Syria's foreign minister. The league wants to send a 500-strong mission of monitors to Syria to assess the situation there.
The league had given Damascus three days from a meeting on November 16th to abide by an Arab plan aimed at ending the violence and starting talks between the government and opposition. The plan included sending a monitoring team to Syria.
Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Thursday to discuss Syria's failure to heed a deadline to halt a crackdown on protests, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.
Dr Assad has pledged his country will not bow down to "pressure" and forecast its bloody conflict would continue.
His comments came as two rocket-propelled grenades hit a major ruling party building in Damascus today, according to residents, the first insurgent attack reported inside the Syrian capital during an eight-month-old uprising against Dr Assad.
"The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue. Syria will not bow down," the president told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in an interview.
"The only way is to search for the armed people, chase the armed gangs, prevent the entry of arms and weapons from neighbouring countries, prevent sabotage and enforce law and order," he said in video footage on the newspaper's website.
Dr Assad said there would be elections in February or March when Syrians would vote for a parliament to create a new constitution and that would include provision for a presidential ballot.
The Syrian Free Army, comprising army defectors and based in neighbouring Turkey, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Baath Party building in Damascus today.
"Security police blocked off the square where the Baath's Damascus branch is located. But I saw smoke rising from the building and fire trucks around it," said a witness. "The attack was just before dawn and the building was mostly empty. It seems to have been intended as a message to the regime," he said.
The attack could not be independently confirmed. The authorities have barred most independent journalists from entering the country during the revolt.
Dr Assad, who blames "armed terrorist acts" for the unrest, inherited power from his father in 2000 and is a member of the Alawite minority community, an offshoot of Shia Islam that dominates the state, the army and security apparatus in the majority Sunni Muslim country of 20 million.
Reuters