Pressure on the Syrian regime continues to intensify as do divisions among the UNSC members. Meanwhile, the UN human rights forum is expected to condemn Syria for crimes against humanity.

European and Arab diplomats have told Reuters that a UN human rights forum will on Wednesday announce an emergency session is to take place on Friday to condemn Damascus.

They also say the move is also designed to put pressure on Russia and China. Russia continues to insist on a compromise to end the crisis without any ultimatums.

It comes days after a UN commission of inquiry said Syrian security forces had committed murder, torture and rape during their crackdown on the anti-government uprising.

“This is very much being led by the Arab group. Some Arab ambassadors are at least as concerned as the European Union and United States – and possibly more,” Britain's ambassador Peter Gooderham told Reuters.

Peter Eyre, a Middle East consultant, told RT that the Arab League is a “puppet of America and the United Nations.”

“You’ve got to understand that Cold War has never finished, the crusades have never finished,” he stated.

Eyre stresses that despite the idea of a movement uniting Islam, the Arab states have consistently turned their backs on each other in the Balkans, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan and, most recently, in Libya.

He also underlined that further sanctions will not help Western states to end the violence in Syria.

“Obviously the people of Syria are the ultimate victims. What we have here is the tip of the iceberg of the Arab Spring which is over-influenced by the West infiltrating into Syria,” he explained.

“Sanctions are a blunt instrument which ultimately affect the population more than they affect the ruling elites,” Middle East expert Edmund Ghareeb told RT.

As the peaceful protests did not have the kind of impact that its organizers had hoped for, Syria is sliding towards a civil war, he added.