On Capitol Hill today, two U.S. diplomats were on the defensive over U.S. policy in Syria and how Washington is handling Russian's intervention.One Republican says it seems the U.S. is ceding the skies over Syria to Russian war planes.Russia has continued its airstrikes sometimes hitting areas controlled by rebels who get U.S. backing.Today, Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart reminding him that they have a common enemy in Syria ― ISIS.NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.U.S. and Russian planes have managed to avoid each other over Syria so far, but Kerry and Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, still seem to be testing each other on the diplomatic front.Russia is backing Bashar al-Assad's regime which Kerry says has to go.So what is the U.S. doing about it? One analyst, Yezid Sayigh, who's with the Carnegie Middle East Center, says it appears the Obama administration is waiting for Russia to fail.The U.S. position at the moment is more ― we're not going to bail out the Russians.They put themselves in. They put their foot in.Let's leave them, you know, to their own devices until they want to come to us and make some suggestions.Everyone is stuck over whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be forced to step down, and against this backdrop, Sayigh thinks diplomats should shift gears.I don't see a political solution coming out of the current configuration, but maybe, maybe, maybe an armed truce.That is a cease-fire that keeps everyone and their proxies in place.
