Additionally, the President‘s team apprised him of ongoing discussions with allies and partners about the violence in western Syria and the Asad regime‘s brutal campaign against its own people. Although the United States suspended bilateral channels with Russia in pursuit of a Cessation of Hostilities, the President directed his team to continue multilateral discussions with key nations with a vested interest in the region to encourage all sides to support a more durable and sustainable diminution of violence and, more broadly, a diplomatic resolution to the civil war.