World press on US-Russian relations and Syrian conflict (May 12, 2013)

Foreign Policy published an article headlined 'Oh, You Silly Man' devoted to the Syrian crisis and the US-Russia debate over the issue.

"The photographs showing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry smiling and slapping palms with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are being circulated by many Syrians opposed to the Bashar al-Assad's regime as visual obituaries of their cause. Weren't these men supposed to be on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict? And why does the Herman Munster-ish Lavrov look happier than his American counterpart?" writes the author of the article, Michael Weiss, who is a columnist for NOW Lebanon and the editor-in-chief of The Interpreter, a Russian translation journal sponsored by the Institute of Modern Russia.

"Perhaps because the atmospherics of Kerry's recent visit to Moscow were meant to show that his hosts were under no illusions as to who was the more desperate and bowed party."

The author notes that sometime before the end of May the United States and Russia will host a conference based on the parameters of the Geneva Protocol, which was agreed to late June 2012 under the auspices of the United Nations. The communiqué the author quotes calls for a "Syrian-led political process leading to a transition that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people."

"To pave the way for such an agreement, the document demands the end to armed violence by both sides, the release of political prisoners, granting journalists freedom of movement throughout the country," Weiss writes.

"As the Russians like to remind the world, nowhere in the Geneva Protocol is there a demand that Assad must resign or even promise not to take power again in future. John Kerry appears to agree: In a joint press conference in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the secretary of state offered this stark reappraisal of President Barack Obama's repeated insistence that Assad quit the scene," the article reads.

"Kerry's comment about Assad's future mirrored Obama's now-notorious "red line" on the use or mobilization of chemical weapons. After the White House admitted that Assad likely used chemical weapons against his own people -- a step that Obama once said would be a "grave mistake" -- America's next diplomatic move on Syria was this effort to revive moribund peace talks," Weiss believes.