TODAY   |  June 17, 2012

Obama, Putin meeting looms large for Syria

A scheduled meeting between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday looks to be a critical event if the UN peace plan is to progress in Syria. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

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>>> staying overseas now, escalating violence in syria has forced u.n. observers to suspend operations. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engle is monitoring the operation from cairo. any hope the international peace plan survives?

>> reporter: the international peace plan right now is frozen. the u.n. monitors say because their access has been denied, because when they go out on missions they have been attacked by mobs, they have been shot at by syrian forces, they declared that it was too dangerous for them to go out and suspended all operations. the syrian opposition is accusing the united nations of cowardice. so right now, it is frozen. but it could get a major jump start depending on a meeting tomorrow between president barack obama and vladimir putin , if russia backs this peace initiative, which so far it has not been backing, it has been backing the syrian government. things could dramatically change. tom.

>> richard engel live from cairo.