Leaders of the opposition in Syria have been invited to a meeting at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo to help them co-ordinate their efforts.
The BBC says it is a dramatic sign of the changing times in the Middle East, since many of the Syrian opposition figures are the sorts of activists ignored or repressed by Arab League members for years.
However, now they are effectively supporting them against President Assad, helping them to be more united and better organised.
The league has proposed sending several hundred observers to monitor the situation in Syria, where calls for political change have provoked a violent response from the government.
