If the suffering of civilians could halt a war, South Sudan would by now have earned a millennium of peace.
UNITED NATIONS — Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called for an immediate grounding of all military aircraft in what he described as "key areas" of Syria — including where aid is delivered — as a last-ditch effort to save an agreement with Russia to reduce violence and ultimately halt a war that shows no sign of slowing.
The ceasefire, brokered by the United States and Russia, is supported by countries that back Assad and his opponents, and marks the second attempt this year to halt a war that has frustrated all peace efforts since fighting began more than five years ago.
He is considered responsible for defusing a number of conflicts in Africa, notably a 2008 agreement that halted a civil war in Kenya.
Lebanon's factions appear to have halted a nascent civil war -- at least temporarily -- with an agreement struck Wednesday in Qatar between the Western-backed government of Fouad Siniora and the Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah.
The operation so far, part of a phased operation to try to halt a civil war, is being described as a success by NATO officials.
The Foreign Secretary, when he gave the news to Parliament, stuck to the Govt. claim that the Anglo-French action had indeed settled a good deal, in halting a larger war, and in making the U.N. at last act in alarmed unison in the Middle East.
He also denigrated the ability of anyone in the current opposition to replace him, describing how the first leadership of newly independent Azerbaijan had been able to halt a civil war in 1993 only by summoning him to become president after he had fallen from favor and been relegated to his ancestral village in southern Azerbaijan.
Set in 1969, Boyd's novel Solo sees Ian Fleming's spy sent on a mission to halt a civil war in West Africa.
An agreement would be a turning point in relations between Serbia and Kosovo, which declared independence on Feb. 17, 2008, almost a decade after NATO intervened against the Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to halt a brutal civil war with Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians.
