The Iranian Chief of General Staff Hasan Fruzabadi held Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar responsible for bloodshed in Syria in a statement published on the Revolutionary Guard’s website.

“To help the war plans of the Great Satan (USA) is not a good principal to follow for neighboring countries. If they are acting on this basis, then they should know that the next time, it will be Turkey’s and other countries turn to take the fall,” Fruzabadi said.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are giving light arms to Syria's rebels but the fighters do not have the advanced weapons needed to confront Bashar al-Assad's regime, a spokeswoman for the opposition SNC said Monday.

"Rebels on the ground are searching desperately for arms wherever they can find them," a spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council, Bassma Kodmani, told France's Europe 1 radio.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Sunday held talks in Doha with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.

Talks tackled “the latest developments in the Arab world,” his office said.

Arab states will not accept a new international envoy to Syria after Kofi Annan's resignation unless his or her mandate is to clearly negotiate a transfer of power, Qatar's prime minister said on Saturday.

"Arab nations will not accept a new envoy with the same mandate that was given to Annan," Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told Al-Jazeera of the outgoing U.N. and Arab League envoy, whose six-point plan for peace was never implemented.

Germany confirmed on Monday that Qatar had expressed interest in a major arms deal after reports the emirate was set to buy 200 Leopard-2 tanks for some two billion euros.

German government spokesman Georg Streiter told a regular news conference: "I know that there has been a statement of interest" although he declined to confirm that negotiations had already taken place.

Qatar is considering buying up to 200 German tanks at a cost of around two billion euros ($2.46 billion), according to a report published on Sunday.

News weekly Spiegel reported that the Qataris were interested in acquiring the Leopard-2 tanks and that a delegation from defense firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann had already travelled to Qatar to discuss the possible deal.

Syrian lawmaker Ikhlas Badawi, who represents the city of Aleppo in the assembly that was elected in widely criticized May polls, has defected and fled to Turkey, the opposition said on Friday.

"There were contacts for some time to ensure her a safe place," Samir Nashhar, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council, told Agence France Presse.

Syria's regime confirmed on Thursday the defection of three diplomats, but downplayed its importance and indirectly accused Qatar of encouraging "national division."

The foreign ministry confirmed the defections of Lamia Hariri, charge d'affaires in Cyprus, her husband Abdel Latif al-Dabbagh, ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and Mohammed Tahsin al-Fakir, security attache in Oman.

Syrian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Abdul-Latif al-Dabbagh has defected, al-Jazeera TV reported Wednesday.

The Doha based television said that Dabbagh defected but it did not say where he was.

Ramadan will begin on Friday in most Arab countries, religious authorities announced, but in Oman and Syria as well as for Iraq's Sunni Muslims and in non-Arab Iran it will start on Saturday.

Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, as well as Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, were among those to announce a Friday start.