ITV News | April 28, 2014

The Syrian writer, Rime Allaf, once of the London-based think-tank Chatham House, and now a senior advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, tells me that Assad will act with impunity as long as he believes the world's words of condemnation are simply that; words.

"We are urging Britain, the US, the UN and NATO to move beyond words, and ensure there is a credible threat to the Assad regime,'' she says. It is, she says, about forcing Assad to re-calibrate his calculations.