Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby has rejected an appeal by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to put an end to the arming of the militants in Syria.

“If there is a political settlement or a beginning of a political settlement, that could happen but at this point I don't think it is possible,” al-Araby told reporters after his joint Monday meeting with Ban and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani at the UN headquarters in New York City.

“If the other side gets some arms from certain parties I think you can get some form of a balance there,” al-Araby said.

Qatar's prime minister refused to comment after the meeting.

During the meeting, Ban called on Qatar and certain Arab states to stop supplying weapons to the militants fighting in Syria, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Monday.

At a meeting in the Qatari capital Doha last month, the Arab League gave its member states the “right” to provide all sorts of arms supply to the militants in Syria.

Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government security forces and army personnel, have been killed in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

The Syrian government says the West and its regional allies including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are supporting the militants.

Several international human rights organizations have accused the militants operating in Syria of committing war crimes.