Secretary of State John Kerry will mount a fresh effort on Saturday to pursue a cease-fire for the besieged city of Aleppo by meeting with representatives from the regional powers most directly involved in the Syria conflict, American officials said on Wednesday. Just last week the Obama administration suspended talks with Russia on Syria after accusing the Russian military of conducting a bombing campaign so brutal that Mr. Kerry has urged that it be the subject of a war crimes investigation.
But Mr. Kerry has doggedly pursued diplomacy on Syria even as he has privately complained that his past negotiating efforts have not been backed up by a credible threat of force to pressure President Bashar al-Assad’s government to stop its attacks. The negotiating strategy this time is to draw together diplomats from Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia and the United States in Lausanne, Switzerland, in the hope that nations that have the greatest stake in the conflict might at least agree on a truce for Aleppo, which could eventually lead to broader talks on Syria’s future.
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