WASHINGTON, REUTERS , Feb 9, 2016– U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will push to secure an immediate Syrian ceasefire and aid for civilians ahead of a crucial meeting in Munich this week as he seeks to keep a fragile peace process alive, U.S. officials said.
The renewed struggle to salvage diplomacy comes as Syrian opposition figures, Western diplomats and analysts voice concern that peace efforts have been all but doomed by a Russian military push that has shored up Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power.
    Critics of Kerry’s approach question whether a ceasefire, if one can be achieved, may come too late.
    Kerry’s approach, which will need Russia’s backing to succeed, is aimed at giving the opposition enough breathing space so that they come back to the negotiating table following the suspension of peace talks in Geneva last week.
    “Kerry believes that if we can get a ceasefire in place and more aid delivered, other diplomatic progress is possible,” a senior U.S. administration official said.
    “It’s hard to get dialogue going when people are being killed and starved to death.”
    The meeting of major powers in Munich on Thursday will be vital to determining the survival of the diplomatic process that has been a key element of President Barack Obama’s Syria policy, which has been marked by his desire to limit U.S. involvement. 
    Jeffrey White, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst now with the Institute for Near East Policy, said the White House had erred by not developing a strategy that balanced a military and diplomatic response to Syria’s unravelling and was paying the price.
    “It hasn’t worked, and it’s not going to work,” he said.  
It remains unclear whether the Syrian opposition will come back to talks by Feb. 25 at the latest, as United Nations’ Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura has proposed.
    Murhaf Jouejati, a former member of the opposition Syrian National Council now at the Middle East Institute think tank, said Syrian rebel commanders and opposition political leaders are furious at the Obama administration for believing that Moscow was sincere about a political settlement.
    “The moderate opposition is beyond angry at the Obama administration. It is stupefied by American inaction,” said Jouejati, who is in regular contact with rebel groups.