No military force in Syria, Qatar says

CAIRO, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The Qatari prime minister said Monday there were no plans for a military intervention in Syria despite ongoing violence in the country.

The Syrian government rejected calls by the Arab League for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step aside.

The Arab League announced Monday from Cairo that Assad should hand power to a deputy who would oversee a transition to a unity government within the next two months.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency, in a statement attributed to an unnamed "official source," reported that Damascus rejects the proposal.

"Syria condemns this decision, which came in the framework of the conspiratorial scheme carried out against Syria, a scheme which has been revealed to our people and the Arab world," the official said.

The United Nations puts the death toll in Syria at more than 5,000 since March, though opposition groups claim the figure is much higher. Damascus maintains its dealing with an armed insurgency aided for foreign meddlers.

Saudi Arabia announced it was pulling out of the Arab League observer mission in Syrian in protest of the ongoing violence. Sudanese Gen. Mohammed al-Dabi, the head of the monitoring mission, said from Cairo there was less violence in Syria with monitors on the ground, however.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said he wanted the United Nations to support Arab plans for political transition in Syria, the BBC reports.

"We're not talking about military intervention," he was quoted as saying.