Very little of substance was achieved, at least officially, at the latest 2+2 in Washington DC. Obama accused Russia of having a Cold War mentality and nobody burst out laughing. Rumor has it that the Americans promised the Russians that the FSA will attend the Geneva II talks even though their official stance is still that they will not talk to those with blood on their hands (I assume that the hands of the FSA have only been touched by rose water and tears of gratitude). Oh, and the Americans have told the Russians one more time that they support the objective of ridding Syria of the al-Nusra types which, of course, makes me wonder whether they are really naive, ignorant, lying or plain stupid or a combination of all of the above. Or whether maybe, as is so often the case, there are deep disagreements at the top of the US power structure as to what course of action to follow.
Bottom line: at least officially, nothing has changed. I continue to want to hope that behind the scenes an intelligent negotiation has taken place.
The Saker