(Reuters) - An ambivalent U.S. response to a Moscow peace conference on Syria, despite a firm boycott by the main opposition, shows how the fight against Islamic State fighters has reduced international pressure against President Bashar al-Assad.
Nearly four years into a war that has already killed more than 200,000 people and displaced millions, even the Russian hosts accept there is little chance of a breakthrough at the conference, which has been spurned by most opposition groups.
Moscow says the aim of the conference, which it is hosting from Monday, is to find ways to restart peace talks that collapsed in Geneva last year.
Russia's longstanding proposals for a peace plan do not require Assad to leave power, which Assad's main opponents consider the basis for any talks.
The United States - still publicly committed to removing Assad - might once have been expected to denounce a conference held on such a basis as a sham.