U.S. and Russia plan conference aimed at ending Syrian war peacefully, hopefully by the end of the m

[laserguided]

[IMG]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/67465000/jpg/_67465152_67465147.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]MOSCOW — Russia and the United States announced on Tuesday that they would seek to convene an international conference aimed at ending the civil war in Syria, jointly intensifying their diplomatic pressure on the combatants to peacefully settle a conflict that has taken more than 70,000 lives and left millions displaced and desperate.
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Mr. Kerry’s visit also came as Washington has talked more and more about intervening in the conflict. The effort to seek a diplomatic solution with the Russians suggested the Obama administration at least wanted to make a public push in that direction first.

Mr. Kerry said both Russia and the United States wanted to hold the conference “as soon as practical, possibly, hopefully as soon as the end of this month.”
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“I would like to emphasize we do not, we are not interested in the fate of certain persons,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday. “We are interested in the fate of the total Syrian people.”

It was unclear how Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov would persuade the antagonists in the two-year-old Syrian conflict to put aside their hostilities for talks. But word of the Russian-American diplomatic effort was nonetheless an optimistic spot on what was otherwise a bleak day in the conflict.

“The alternative is that there is even more violence,” Mr. Kerry told reporters. “The alternative is that Syria heads closer to the abyss, if not over the abyss and into chaos.”

Earlier Tuesday, four United Nations soldiers patrolling part of the disputed Golan Heights area between Syria and Israel were detained by Syrian insurgents, the second time in two months that members of the blue-helmeted international peacekeeping force in that region have become entangled in Syria’s civil war.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the detentions and called for the immediate release of the peacekeepers. A spokesman for Mr. Ban, Martin Nesirky, told reporters at the United Nations that all parties must respect the peacekeeping force’s “freedom of movement and safety and security.”

In Geneva, United Nations relief agency officials said the number of displaced Syrians inside the country had more than doubled in the past two months, to 4.25 million, and that roughly one in three Syrians, or about 6.8 million, needed urgent assistance — half of them children.
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[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/world/middleeast/syria-golan-heights-united-nations.html?_r=0[/url]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22430063[/url]

[DaysBefore]

I don't see this war ending without one side completely crushing the other. Either Assad will win and the rebels will be persecuted, or the rebels will win and the loyalists will be persecuted. I don't hold out any hope for a Peacekeeper deployment or a multi-party discussion at this point.

[ewitwins]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[Vosk]

They will just Korea it.

North Syria and South Syria.