''What's he thinking?''

[Telegraph] "...But with rebel groups openly admitting to executing prisoners, and radical Islamist groups taking more prominent roles in the fighting, Mr Cameron's initiative has caused surprise in the US state department and elsewhere.

"It's amazing," said one western diplomat familiar with the startled US response. "Questions have to be asked in London as to what Cameron is thinking."

The diplomat was speaking in Doha, the Qatari capital, where a disparate collection of Syrian exiles has spent the week with western and Arab backers trying to cajole them into a semblance of unity....

One rebel general complained to The Sunday Telegraph this week that the current policy seemed designed to create a permanent civil war.

"Personal weapons are provided, enough to leave the situation as it is now, in disorder,.... When the revolutionaries get stronger, and start to best the government, the international community stops weapons being sent. Then when the revolutionaries become weak, more support arrives. When you look at what's happened, at the support starting and stopping, you realise it is arranged so as to leave Syria in chaos, rather than to bring about change."....

The difficulty is that the longer the West's intervention is delayed, the worse rebel divisions and atrocities become, making it ever more difficult to present a case for action to wary public opinion. Yet at the same time, the danger of more bloodshed and more chaos spreading through the region also increases...."