Russia says Syrian regime agrees to peace talks

Middle Eastern News Photos

Head of the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib speaks during the group's meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, May 23, 2013. A spokesman said Syria's main opposition bloc welcomes renewed calls by its foreign supporters that Syrian President Bashar Assad give up power at the start of any political transition aimed at ending the country's civil war. The three-day meeting started in Istanbul to lay out conditions for possible talks with regime representatives in Geneva next month.(AP Photo/Bulent Kilic, Pool)

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Russia says Syri... Head of the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces Mouaz al-Khatib speaks during the group's meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, May 23, 2013. A spokesman said Syria's main opposition bloc welcomes renewed calls by its foreign supporters that Syrian President Bashar Assad give up power at the start of any political transition aimed at ending the country's civil war. The three-day meeting started in Istanbul to lay out conditions for possible talks with regime representatives in Geneva next month.(AP Photo/Bulent Kilic, Pool)
Israel warns Syr... An Israeli soldier works on top of a tank in a position in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights, on the border with Syria, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Israel's military chief has issued a stern warning to Syrian leader Bashar Assad after an Israeli military jeep came under fire from Syrian forces early Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said on Tuesday that Israel will not allow the Golan Heights "to become a comfortable sphere for Assad to operate from." He said that if the situation deteriorates further, Assad "will have to bear the consequences." (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Q&A: On Turkey's... Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan defends the legislation passed earlier Friday, that bans advertising alcohol, during an address to his party members in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, May 24, 2013. Tempers flared and scuffles broke out during an all-night legislative session of parliament that passed a bill banning all forms of advertising alcohol. Legislation passed in Turkey's parliament early Friday that would ban all alcohol advertising and tighten restrictions on the sale of such beverages, and how such a law could affect tourists and liquor companies in the mainly Muslim but secular country.(AP Photo)
Iran candidate l... In this photo taken on Saturday, May 11, 2013, conservative former Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shows his inked finger to media as he registers his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, at the election headquarters of the interior ministry in Tehran, Iran. He was selected Tuesday, May 21, 2013 as one of eight candidates allowed to push ahead with his presidential bid. Velayati, 67, served as foreign minister during the 1980-88 war with Iraq and into the 1990s. He is a physician and runs a hospital in north Tehran. He was among the suspects named by Argentina in a 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Kerry: US, allie... U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, speaks during a joint news conference with his Jordanian counterpart, Nasser Judeh, right, in Amman Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States and its Arab and European allies will step up their support for Syria’s opposition to help them “fight for the freedom of their country” if President Bashar Assad’s regime doesn’t engage in peace talks in good faith. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)
Kerry's focus on... U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, Israel, Thursday, May 23, 2013. The US and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. (AP Photo/Jim Young, Pool)
AP PHOTOS: Egypt... In this photo taken Sunday, May 12, 2013, Egyptians walk by the medieval fortress wall in the historic Fatimid Cairo, Egypt. Cairo, the Arab world's most populated city, is often referred to as an open-air museum of Islamic antiquities and the city of 1,000 minarets. But its rich history and contributions to Islamic art has languished. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
5 dead in Lebano... A Sunni gunman fires his machine gun during clashes that erupted between pro and anti-Syrian regime gunmen, in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Thursday, May. 23, 2013. Opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad traded heavy machine gun fire and mortar shells in the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, leaving five people dead in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting there in years, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo)
Syria opposition... This citizen journalism image provided by Qusair Lens, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man checking his destroyed house that was damaged by a Syrian forces air strike in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanon border, Homs province, Syria, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Several members of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group died of wounds sustained while fighting for control of a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border, activists said Tuesday, as the battle in the area raged for its third straight day. (AP Photo/Qusair Lens)