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Summary Russia is the main supporter of Assad and has sent forces to crush Syrian violence.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday she would tell Russia that the risk of civil war was rising in Syria, cautioning she expected rough diplomacy on the conflict.Clinton said that she would raise the Syria crisis when she meets Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in talks among foreign ministers of the Group of Eight major economies starting in Washington on Wednesday.We will have another go at trying to persuade the Russians that the situation is deteriorating and the likelihood of regional conflict and civil war is increasing, she said at the US Naval Academy in response to a question.So I think there will be a very rough couple of days in trying to determine whether we go to the Security Council seeking action, knowing that Russia is still not on board, she said.Russia is the main supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has sent forces to crush a year-long uprising -- in violence that the United Nations says has killed more than 9,000 people.Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in Moscow on Tuesday that his government has been withdrawing forces in line with a plan negotiated by former UN chief Kofi Annan, but Western countries are skeptical of Assads promises.
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