At the end of his two-day mission, Kofi Annan says he presented president Bashar al-Assad with "concrete proposals" to halt the unrest, which according to some estimates has claimed more than 8,500 lives since March last year.

But Syrian analyst Rime Allaf, who is an associate fellow at Chatham House in London, is not optimistic.

She spoke to me earlier from London. If experiencing problems with the player above, click here to listen:
https://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2012/s3450914.htm