Qatari PM wants 'all options' explored in Syria

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said Thursday the time had come to "study all options" in seeking a way out of the Syrian crisis. "We have to study all options to save the Syrian people," Al-Thani said after meeting European Parliament head Martin Schulz. The Qatari premier is in favor of sending an international peacekeeping force to Syria, with an Arab "core," and on Monday said he backed delivering arms to the Syrian opposition. However, he denied any Qatari troops were on the ground in Syria. "That's not true at all," he said. Schulz hailed Qatar for playing a "constructive" role in the crisis. More than 7,600 people have been killed in violence across Syria since anti-regime protests erupted in March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.