Reuters reports that “U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opened high-stakes talks on Thursday on disarming Syria’s chemical weapons programs, but differences emerged at the outset over U.S. military threats against Syria.”

“Kerry, appearing with Lavrov at the start of what are expected to be two days of talks, said military force might be needed against Syria if diplomacy over President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile fails.”

The piece continues: “But Lavrov said U.S. threats to launch missile strikes at Syria in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack on Damascus suburbs, which Washington says killed more than 1,400 people, should be set aside.”