"In the past, countries which have fallen foul of the Arab consensus, Egypt I think is the most striking example, have found themselves expelled, suspended from the League, so suspension from activities sounds slightly less. I think that the mood music, if you like, of the Arab League is to treat a member state which is causing problems to itself, to its own people perhaps and to others, is to treat it like a member of a family that has gone astray.

I agree that the situation in Syria is at the outer limits of what is tolerable, but that's still the sense that this is a pan-Arab organisation based on mutual solidarity and sympathy and the problems need to be resolved within that. So perhaps that is part of the graduated response, not to go for suspension, let alone expulsion and to give a little more time even if not much is likely to happen between now and four days' time. But it's a carefully balanced decision that presumably was constructed to allow the maximum number of countries to support it."

Ian Black, Middle East editor at The Guardian