Still hope for peace in Syria

BEIJING - The doors to negotiation within the framework of the Arab League have not been entirely shut for crisis-torn Damascus, despite a recent decision by the league to suspend its monitoring mission inside Syria, analysts said.

The move, which came just days before the United Nations will discuss and vote on an Arab peace plan aimed at ending the 10-month-old crisis, will nonetheless limit the options and time for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said He Wenping, a researcher with the Institute of West Asian & African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Scheduled to send a delegation to New York to brief UN Security Council members, the 22-member Arab League said its latest decision resulted from escalating violence in Syria, where the UN says around 5,400 people have been killed since protests against the administration of Assad began last March.