Diplomatic efforts face hurdle of Russian veto as fighting intensifies in Damascus suburbs

David Cameron expressed hope today that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad would leave office this year.

Nations cite as their reason the daily killing of protesters by President Assad's regime

Syria's foreign minister has signaled that his country will continue its 10-month crackdown on dissent.

Syria rejected the Arab League's wide-ranging new plan to end the country's 10-month crisis yesterday, saying the League's call for a national-unity government in two months is a clear violation of Syrian sovereignty.

Syria has rejected a new Arab League plan to end the country's 10-month crisis.

Meshaal's departure may affect movement's shift to a more moderate stance towards Israel

The Arab League's credibility was in jeopardy last night as opposition figures and a senior UN official condemned the bloc's mission to Syria, while Saudi Arabia announced it was withdrawing its monitors from the country, despite the League officially extending its mandate.

Syrian government tanks and armoured vehicles have pulled back from an embattled mountain town near Damascus, witnesses said, as a month-long Arab League fact-finding mission expired.

Syrian government tanks and armored vehicles have pulled back from an embattled mountain town near Damascus, activists and witnesses said today, but at least nine people were killed by security forces elsewhere as a month-long Arab League fact-finding mission expired.

Russia strongly criticised Western belligerence towards Syria and Iran yesterday, saying that a military assault on the Iranian regime could cause a "chain reaction" that would destabilise the entire world.

A Syrian rebel army chief urged the world today to protect civilians in Syria, saying Arab peace monitors had failed to curb President Bashar al-Assad's violent response to a 10-month-old revolt against his rule.

Syria may be sliding towards civil war, the head of the Arab League warned yesterday.

If there was ever much hope that Bashar al-Assad might be willing to compromise, it has now been comprehensively dispelled. Far from moderating his position, the Syrian President's defiant speech this week makes clear that he is digging in. Alongside wearily familiar lines blaming foreign conspiracies for the rebellion that has claimed more than 5,000 civilian lives since March, he made alarming promises to crack down with an "iron fist" on the terrorists causing such upheavals.