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Syria Transition Plan Falters?
(Wall Street Journal) Sam Dagher - At the core of the latest initiative is the creation by "mutual consent" of a new transitional government. In his news conference after the Geneva meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted there was nothing in the proposed plan stipulating that Mr. Assad should leave power and said his country succeeded in blocking the inclusion of language that would have called for making the plan obligatory under the UN Chapter 7 provision. Nadim Shehadi, an associate fellow at the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, called the Geneva meeting "a flop" except for the opportunity it gave Russia to once more flex its muscles as a key player in Syria and the Middle East.