ROME/MOSCOW (Reuters) – If Russia has decided to make a new diplomatic push to drag Syria’s warring parties into peace talks, it may be because of signs that the United States could slowly get sucked into the conflict.

The two major powers’ joint announcement that they would try to bring together representatives of President Bashar al-Assad’s government and the rebel forces fighting to oust him represents their first serious diplomatic initiative in nearly a year.

ROME (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Wednesday that Washington was trying to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks within a short time frame as he announced his fourth visit to the region this year.

Kerry will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on May 21 or 22, he said after talks in Rome with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is overseeing the Israeli effort to relaunch negotiations.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Russian human rights activists on Wednesday but disappointed many by avoiding any harsh criticism of the Kremlin’s record on civil liberties and democracy.

A day after talks in Moscow at which he and Russian officials agreed to try to bring Syria’s warring parties together to discuss ending a civil war, Kerry discussed with human rights campaigners what they say is a clampdown on dissent by President Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Russia and the United States agreed to seek new peace talks with both sides to end Syria’s civil war, but opposition leaders were skeptical on Wednesday of an initiative they fear might let President Bashar al-Assad to cling to power.

Visiting Moscow after Israel bombed targets near Damascus and as President Barack Obama faces renewed calls to arm the rebels, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia had agreed to try to arrange a conference as early as this month.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and the United States agreed on Tuesday to convene an international conference, possibly by the end of this month, to try to end the civil war in Syria and prevent bloodshed tearing the country apart.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State John Kerry announced the agreement after talks in Moscow, despite their countries’ differences over Syria, and said the Damascus government and the rebels fighting it should be invited.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The U.S. secretary of state sought Russian help in ending Syria’s civil war on Tuesday, telling President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that common interest in a stable Middle East could bridge divisions among the big powers.

Putin, however, kept John Kerry waiting three hours before their meeting at the Kremlin, fiddled with a pen while his guest spoke and made no mention in his own public remarks of the conflict in Syria, which has generated some of the frostiest exchanges between Washington and Moscow since the Cold War.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will “make another stab” at seeing if the United States and Russia can work together to find a political solution to end Syria’s civil war when he visits Moscow this week, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

Kerry departs for Moscow on Monday afternoon and is scheduled to see Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss a wide range of issues including the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, Afghanistan and U.S.-Russian trade.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, former White House aide and Harvard professor, is under consideration to be the U.S. State Department’s top human rights official, sources familiar with the matter said.

If chosen, Power, an outspoken defender of human rights who wrote a study of the U.S. government’s failure to prevent genocide in the 20th century, could become a strong voice in the administration for a more muscular U.S. role in protecting rights in such places as Syria, China and Sudan.

TOKYO (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry defended the re-orientation of U.S. foreign policy toward Asia on Monday as he ended a trip to the region dominated by concerns about North Korea’s nuclear programs.

The “rebalancing” of the United States toward Asia has caused unease in Beijing, which has tended to focus on the military dimensions of the strategy and to view it as a way to contain China’s rise.

TOKYO, April 14 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry on Sunday stressed the United States is willing to engage
with North Korea as long as it takes steps to give up nuclear
weapons.

He also vowed Washington would protect its Asian allies
against any provocative acts by the North, but said it wants a
peaceful solution to rising tensions in the region.