New plans for another global summit on the Syrian crisis represent modest progress, but the real question is whether the Kremlin is willing to withdraw support for the Assad regime, says CFR’s Stephe…

Richard N. Haass, CFR president and a well-known Middle East expert, says what President Bush’s Iraq speech “represented more than anything else was the re-Americanization of the effort.”

Nathan J. Brown, an expert on Arab and Palestinian politics, says despite the major split in Palestinian ranks between Fatah and Hamas, it is “unlikely in the extreme” that some kind of peace arrange…

Serge Schmemann of the International Herald Tribune says Nicolas Sarkozy’s triumph in the French presidential elections represents “a mandate for change.”

Washington’s representative to talks on Kosovo, Frank G. Wisner, says Serbia will never recognize an independent Kosovo and that Russia’s role has been “unbelievably regrettable.”