BEIRUT/AMMAN: An Arab League delegation tasked with restarting dialogue between President Bashar Assad’s government and the country’s diverse opposition to end the country’s eight-month crisis arrived in the capital Damascus Wednesday. But despite claims, the talks were “cordial and frank,” prospects for dialogue seemed dim, with the government insisting any talks should take place inside Syria and not at the League’s Cairo headquarters, and opposition groups insisting conditional talks would only be aimed at ending Assad’s rule.

Assad met the delegation of Arab ministers, headed by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad al-Thani, as Assad supporters put on another show of strength with a mass rally at Umayyad Square in central Damascus, and more reports of violence leading to the deaths of at least 20 people.

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