With war trumping peace efforts in recent weeks in Syria, U.N.-mediated talks sputtered over another missed deadline to resume this past week. U.N.-led humanitarian aid is trickling in but only to the neediest spots. He noted how Russia has been both a participant, helping Assad's fight, as well as an arbiter in the war. Turkey's incursion into northern Syria in August to fight Kurdish militias and IS militants showed that Ankara and Damascus have common enemies. The truce brokered by the U.S. and Russia largely held for weeks, and humanitarian aid that was all but nonexistent last year began flowing.

Source: ABC News September 03, 2016 10:07 UTC