Readying New Syria Push, US Feels Out Russia Again (starts with Kerry trip to Moscow this week)
8 hours ago • Associated Press
The Obama administration is trying to leverage new evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons, and make a fresh diplomatic and possible military push with allies to end the country's civil war.
This renewed effort starts with Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to Moscow this coming week for talks with leaders in Russia, the Syrian government's most powerful international friend.
Russia, alongside China, has blocked U.S.-led efforts three times at the United Nations to pressure Assad into stepping down. The U.S. hopes to change Moscow's thinking with two new arguments, officials said: the evidence of chemical weapons attacks and, with the war now in its third year, American threats to arm the Syrian rebels.
Russia represents the most difficult diplomatic test as the U.S. tries to assemble a global coalition to halt a war that has claimed more than 70,000 lives.
http://tdn.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/readying-new-syria-push-us-feels-out-russia-again/article_546444bb-c9f3-51da-b60a-9149abafee5d.html
= new reply since forum marked as read