Arab ministers met in Cairo to revive diplomatic efforts after Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution that called for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside. That resolution was based on an Arab peace plan and had Western backing. The draft resolution also called for tighter implementation of economic sanctions Arabs previously imposed on Syria, halting diplomatic cooperation with Syria and called for providing aid and political support to the Syrian people. As part of the Arab efforts, Tunisia said it would host the first meeting on Feb. 24 of a "Friends of Syria" contact group made up of Arab and other states and backed by Western powers. "How long will we stay as onlookers to what is happening to the brotherly Syrian people, and how much longer will we grant the Syrian regime one period after another so it can commit more massacres against its people?" Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal asked ministers at the start of the League session. "At our meeting today I call for decisive measures, after the failure of the half-solutions," he said. "The Arab League should ... open all channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and give all forms of support to it." The draft proposed scrapping the Arab monitoring mission which had been sent to Syria in late December but which was criticised by Syria's opposition as ineffective from the outset. It also faced internal dissent and logistical problems. The Sudanese general leading the observers quit on Sunday. "I won't work one more time in the framework of the Arab League," General Mohammed al-Dabi, whose appointment had been criticised because of Sudan's own rights record, told Reuters. "I performed my job with full integrity and transparency but I won't work here again as the situation is skewed," he added. The draft resolution instead called for "the UN Security Council to send an international peacekeeping force to Syria". Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told the ministers he was proposing a new joint Arab-UN monitoring team to Syria, an idea he has already proposed to the UN secretary-general. That plan has drawn only lukewarm support from diplomats in New York.