As diplomatic deadlock ensures that the conflict in Syria is set to drag on, officials say the US wants to see opposition enclaves established on the borders with Turkey rather than Lebanon.
Successive Russian and US statements in recent days indicate that the international diplomatic impasse over the Syrian crisis is set to persist, along with the escalating violence on the ground.
Neither of the big powers backing the rival sides in the regime-opposition conflict has budged in its view of the troubles in Syria or the kind of solution it wants – whether it should exclude President Bashar al-Assad, or be under his auspices. Neither is capable of giving traction to UN/Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s plan to end the cycle of violence and start a political dialogue. But neither, in the absence of an alternative, can they ditch it.
The same applies to the domestic players: the regime and the opposition claim to be committed to Annan’s plan, but both in practice resort to violence as the sole means of resolving a struggle over which they have lost control...
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-crisis-less-lebanon-more-turkey