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A team of 30 UN observers are monitoring a five-day cease-fire in Syria today that UN Secretary general Ban Ki-Moon has already called “very fragile.” Neighborhoods with strong opposition to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad came under heavy fire over the weekend, leading to widespread doubt that his regime would honor the cease-fire or engage in dialogue as called for by the UN. Even today, Al Jazeera reported that residents of Homs said the government continued to shell their city as the army attempts to regain control of rebel held areas.

Meanwhile in Bahrain the 2012 Gulf Air F1 Grand Prix race will be held as scheduled this weekend, over the objections of anti-government protestors. On Friday the Formula One governing body announced that the prestigious car race would hold the event on April 22 at the Sakhir circuit after it was canceled in 2011 due to the popular uprising that began last February and continues today. Bahraini writer and political analyst Ala’a Shehabi reacted to the news in an interview with Al Jazeera on Friday. Bahraini activists called for three days of rage to protest and a march of thousands reportedly took place on Friday.

There are conflicting claims of how wide spread protest and violence is over the small Persian gulf nation. A former British police officer working now with Bahraini police told Reuters last week that he often felt safer in Bahrain than London. However just last Monday seven Bahraini police officers were wounded in a bomb explosion, and a supermarket owned by a Shiite business group was vandalized two days later in retaliation. Bahraini and Danish duel citizen Abdelhadi al-Khawaja has brought renewed interest to the protest movement recently after starting a hunger strike on February 8th. The co-founder of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights was convicted of committing crimes against the government last June and was sentenced to life in prison.

GUEST: Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies

UPDATE: A 15-year-old boy was shot in the chest by Bahraini forces on Saturday, among several other injured. The incident occurred as thousands of people attended a funeral procession on Friday for Ahmed Ismail, 22, a ‘citizen journalist’, outside of the capital Manama. Click here to read more.