Sunni arab patience seems to be running thin with Assad’s brutal regime. Syria now ranks alongside Israel as the only country without a diplomatic presence in the GCC.
Gulf Arab states say they are expelling Syrian ambassadors in their countries and recalling their envoys from Syria.
The Gulf Cooperation Council said Syria had rejected Arab attempts to solve the crisis and end 11 months of bloodshed.
The US closed its embassy in Syria on Monday, and several European countries have recalled their ambassadors.
The moves came as Syrian government forces continued their fierce assault on the restive city of Homs, and Russian officials visited Damascus.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a solution to the crisis based on Arab League initiatives, days after Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution on Syria.
The BBC’s Paul Wood - one of the only foreign reporters in Homs - says the Syrian army resumed mortar attacks and heavy machine-gun fire after daybreak.
He says Russian-made tanks have been seen close to the city centre, but these is no sign so far of the ground assault feared by many residents.
Hundreds are reported to have died since the shelling of the city began on Friday. At least 95 people were killed on Monday alone, activists say.
‘Honest efforts aborted’
A Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) statement said: “Members have decided to withdraw their ambassadors from Syria and ask at the same time for all the ambassadors of the Syrian regime to leave immediately.”
There was “no point in them staying after the Syrian regime rejected all attempts and aborted all honest Arab efforts to solve this crisis and end the bloodshed”, it added.
Member states “follow with sorrow and anger, the increase in killing and violence in Syria, which has not spared children, old people or women with heinous acts that at best can be described as mass slaughter”.