John Kerry

Syria's warring sides prepared on March 13 for fresh peace talks after locking horns over the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, with the regime insisting his ouster was a "red line" while the opposition vowed to see him go - dead or alive.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his French, German, British and Italian counterparts will meet March 13 in Paris to discuss the Syrian crisis ahead of planned peace talks in Geneva, France's foreign minister said.

A temporary truce in Syria fighting that started at midnight Damascus time (2200 GMT) on Saturday seemed largely to hold, Reuters reported.

Yet, some rebels claimed that there were what they called occasional violations in Hama province on part of government forces.

The six-year-long Syrian unrest is observing its first agreed truce between rival groups as of Feb. 27, following lengthy diplomatic work by the United States and Russia.

The United States is "very sensitive" to Turkey's concerns regarding the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the military arm of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), America's top diplomat said Feb. 25.        

Turkey's foreign minister has thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her support of the Turkish government's demand to establish safe zones inside Syria, while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry expressed wariness over a safe zone in Syria, saying that up to 30,000 troops would be needed to maintain the area. 

The United States warned it would be hard to hold the country together if the fighting did not stop after a cease-fire deal was reached to take effect as of Feb. 27.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has assured Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of his government's readiness to respect a ceasefire deal brokered by Moscow and Washington, the Kremlin said on Feb. 24.

Ankara offers a guarded welcome to a prospective truce in Syria but implies that Russia might not cease its aerial campaign against the oppositionTurkey has welcomed a Syria cease-fire announced by the United States and Russia, adding that that it was cautious over the implementation of the deal. 

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic spoke on the phone on Monday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Kerry said on the occasion he will "inform the Serbian government and the prime minister in person of all details of a U.S. investigation into the killing of two Serbian diplomats in Libya."