A hastily assembled negotiation between U.S. and Russian officials is set to open in Geneva on Thursday as Secretary of State John Kerry meets his Russian counterpart to weigh a proposal for removing stockpiles of chemical weapons from the Syrian government's control and forestalling a threatened U.S. military attack.
U.S. officials made clear that they aren't trying to settle one key point of disagreement that has emerged between Moscow and Western powers: whether the effort to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control should be accompanied by a United Nations