Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, Prime Minister of Qatar and chairman of the Arab ministerial committee on Syria, says that if the killings continue in Syria then there was no point in sending the Arab observers there. Wise words of course, but why now, after nearly two months of the al-Assad regime's procrastination, and after all this bloodshed?

This is a strange matter. Does anyone concerned with Syrian affairs, need all this time to know that the killing is still going on in Syria? Has Sheikh Hamad not seen, for example, the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel's coverage of the situation in Syria? Has Sheikh Hamad, and likewise the Arabs, especially Nabil El-Araby, not seen the children killed in Syria, along with women and the elderly? Is it not clear to those who practice politics in the Arab world that the al-Assad regime lies and procrastinates? Did we not warn them about the al-Assad regime, and tell them to be objective about the situation?

Unfortunately, the Arabs have taken over ten months to discover that the al-Assad killing machine has not stopped, while in nine months they managed to end the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, with the help of NATO. Today we find certain Arabs amongst us, such as the Algerian and Iraqi governments, saying no to the internationalization of the Syrian crisis, even with the deaths of 6,000 Syrians, and even though the al-Assad killing machine continues to murder unarmed Syrians every day!

Of course, the depressing Arab reality reached a stage of further deterioration when the Arab League opted to employ Khaled Mishal – a man known for his love of coups - to mediate in the Syrian crisis. If this was only a matter of pandering to the Muslim Brotherhood, or cutting a deal with them, then the Brotherhood "devotees" should have sent Rachid Ghannouchi to mediate, and not Mishal. Ghannouchi's well documented speech at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy - which he tried in vain to deny - about upcoming revolutions against Arab monarchies, indicates that he is a man fluent in evasive maneuvering, and saying something only later to deny it. This unfortunately, is the most basic qualification required in the Arab world, in many cases, to be a politician. Otherwise, how can the al-Assad regime kill its own people and still find all these deadlines? Then, just as we are told that we are coming to the end of the road with the Syrian regime, the Arab League sends Khaled Mishal to mediate in the Syrian crisis, and convince al-Assad to stop the violence?

Interestingly, Mishal said it was time to move from a security solution to a political one in Syria. This is coming from a man who settled affairs in Gaza in a military fashion. How ridiculous that the Arab League's mediator is the leader of the Hamas coup, and that the chairman of the Arab League delegation to Syria is Mustafa al-Dabi, a general under the command of the Sudanese President, who also rose to power via a coup. Of course, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cannot be blamed when he protested against Mishal's mediation in the Syrian crisis, even though it seems today that Abbas is seeking to obtain recognition for a Palestinian state from the Arab League, and not the United Nations (UN)! The Arab stance towards Syria has floundered; it has caused horrendously excessive Syrian bloodshed, and has been suspiciously lax towards Bashar al-Assad.

Thus, as Sheikh Hamad is talking about the ongoing al-Assad killing machine, even though this talk comes far too late, the best thing he can do for the unarmed Syrians is to transfer their case to the UN Security Council, and put an end to the gross error of a man like Khaled Mishal mediating in Syria.

Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that position. He holds a BA degree in Media studies from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and has also completed his Introductory courses towards a Master's degree from George Washington University in Washington D.C. He is based in London.