The Syrian bombardment of the city of Homs has entered its fifth day as Russia’s foreign minister has arrived in Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad. Sergei Lavrov’s visit comes just days after Russia and China vetoed a United Nations resolution to press Assad to step down. On Monday, the United States shut its embassy in Damascus. Italy, Belgium and Britain have recalled their ambassadors.

Victoria Nuland: “We have concluded that we need to suspend operations at our embassy in Damascus, in light of the fact that we have security concerns about the safety of our personnel. As you know, we had been working for many weeks with Syrian officials to try to control access around our embassy facility. We were not able to come to appropriate arrangements there, so the decision was made to suspend operations. Ambassador Ford and the remaining personnel departed the country Damascus time this morning and the flag has been taken down.”