The United States has embraced an offer by Saudi Arabia to join potential ground operations against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Syria. The news comes as peace talks on the five-year Syrian conflict have broken down. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said he hoped the talks would begin again by the end of February.

Josh Earnest: “The U.N. representative, who has been responsible for trying to mediate these discussions, did announce that the talks have been paused. He’s used that terminology primarily because he expects the talks to resume before the end of the month. And we’re obviously hopeful that that will happen. And we’re going to continue to try to encourage both sides in that direction.”