U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting this week with leaders from several Middle Eastern countries and Russia about how to revive the political process in war-torn Syria.
That diplomatic effort that has been attempted before, and each time it has failed to halt the conflict that has left hundreds of thousands of Syrians dead and created the worst refugee crisis since World War II.
This time the diplomatic push comes at a potentially critical moment, with Russia intensifying military and diplomatic support for its longtime ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian warplanes have been bombing the rebels trying to overthrow Assad, and weeks of those air raids have helped the Syrian military retake some territory.
Assad made his first known trip outside Syria this week since the unrest began in 2011, traveling to Moscow for a meeting at the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
To take a closer look at the situation in Syria, VOA spoke with a number of experts on the region, including some who are hopeful that the possibility of resuming efforts for a negotiated settlement in Syria have now increased.
Here are excerpts of those interviews:
The Syrian army is regaining territory lost earlier to opposition forces, and Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah have stepped up their support on the ground. So clearly, in the last few weeks, Assad has felt good about what's happening on the ground. I think this visit is not so much to further embolden him as it is to showcase that Russia has the upper hand in terms of determining how things are going in Syria - and perhaps broader than that, in the region.
You could view it both ways. It is a failure of U.S. policy because for the past four, almost five, years, the initiative was there for the U.S. to take. And the passive initiatives that this administration has taken has fallen far short of accomplishing anything on the ground or politically. The Russians stepped in and already, militarily, are already making a difference.
And this was the goal of Russia's military intervention: not so much to just conduct some token strikes against people they don't like, but actually to reverse the strategic situation on the ground. It was a very purposeful military intervention, and it clearly has made a difference. Now comes the time for some kind of political move, and clearly the videos that came out of the [Putin-Assad] meeting showed essentially Putin lecturing Assad and telling him that with the military achievements now going on, the time for a political settlement is approaching.
For Putin, it again puts him again at diplomatic center stage. He's painted this picture that all roads lead to Russia. Look at who he's received in Russia over the last month and a half or so: leaders or leading officials from Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran. And he's long met with elements of the Syrian opposition. And now Assad. The image he gives is that only he can meet with all of the stakeholders in the conflict, from all sides of the conflict, and that only he can generate an end to the conflict.
And for Assad, of course we know he's been an international pariah, he's been delegitimized as a ruler by most. But now, he's met quite possibly at the current time with the most popular and influential leader in the world. And just by osmosis, he's gained some legitimacy. And he presents this image of being statesman-like, in control, that he's on the uptick, that he's breaking out of his isolation.
The Russian military strikes have degraded the non-ISIS opposition. And frankly, I think that Putin and Russia have engaged in this because they've made the conclusion that a political solution or a negotiated settlement is out of the question; it just isn't going to happen. They tried, and therefore let's try a different tactic. And this one is to degrade the non-ISIS position to a point where all that's left in the short or near term, if Putin achieves his objectives, is Assad and ISIS. And he's betting that most of the world in that sort of situation will side with the lesser of evils, and side with Assad.
I think he's underestimating the fighting ability of the non-ISIS opposition in Syria. And also I think he's probably reinvigorated some of the Sunni Arab conservative monarchies in the Persian Gulf in particular - individuals and governments - to increase their support for Sunni elements in Syria to fight against Assad. So I think that Putin may have underestimated that. But if he's successful, he will have achieved some immediate medium-term objectives at a fairly low cost.