U.S. secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov are reportedly near a deal that would end the fighting in Syria after five bloody years of civil war. That is, if all parties can be convinced to abide by the agreement. A ceasefire was agreed to in February, but it collapsed almost immediately. NBC News: "As we have all seen now, violations eventually became the norm rather than the exception," Kerry said. Kerry said the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has conducted a continued aerial bombardment with barrel bombs and choline gas. Kerry said "we have a few narrow issues to be resolved" on an agreement. Much of the discussions have involved how to make a ceasefire stick. "We are close," Kerry said. "But as I have said to you in other contexts before, we're not going to rush to an agreement until it satisfies fully the needs of the Syrian people and the ability of the international community to...(Read Full Post)