...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing...
advisory body called on Sunday for the immediate withdrawal of the organization's monitoring mission in Syria, saying it was allowing Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
to cover up continued violence and abuses.
The Arab League has sent a small team to Syria to check whether
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
is keeping his promise to end a crackdown on a nine-month uprising against his rule.
The observer mission has already stirred controversy. Rights groups have reported continued deaths in festivities and tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to show the observers the extent of their anger.
The Sudanese head of the mission also infuriated some observers by suggesting he was reassured by first impressions of Homs, one of the main centres of unrest.
The Arab Parliament, an 88-member advisory committee of delegates from each of the League's member states, on Sunday said the violence was continuing to claim many victims.
"For this to happen in the presence of Arab monitors has roused the anger of Arab people and negates the purpose of sending a fact-finding mission," the organization's chairman Ali al-Salem al-Dekbas said.
"This is giving the Syrian regime an Arab cover for continuing its inhumane actions under the eyes and ears of the vaporous Arab League," he said.
The Arab Parliament was the first body to recommend freezing Syria's membership in the organization in response to Assad's crackdown.