Syria

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Syrians help a wounded man after a government airstrike hit the Hama suburb of Halfaya, Syria, on Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, in this image taken from video that has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

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Lakhdar Brahimi (left), an envoy of the United Nations and Arab League, visits Monday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus in an effort to find a way out of the civil war that activists say has killed more than 40,000 people. (Associated Press)

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This Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, image taken from video that has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting shows a Syrian man carrying an elderly woman after a government airstrike hit the Hama suburb of Halfaya, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

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**FILE** Syrian Orthodox Christians attend Easter Mass in Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, April 15, 2012. Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Syria's population of more than 22 million, say they are particularly vulnerable to the violence that has been sweeping the country since March 2011. They are fearful that the country will become another Iraq, with Christians caught in the crossfire between rival Islamic groups. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)

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Syrian protesters carry a large revolution flag and chant slogans during a demonstration in Aleppo, Syria, where young people and children sang songs against President Bashar Assad and his regime on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Virginie Nguyen Hoang)

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Lakhdar Brahimi, joint special representative of the United Nations and the League of Arab States for Syria, answers media questions after consultations at U.N. headquarters on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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** File ** Syrian rebels attend a training session in Maaret Ikhwan, near Idlib, Syria, Dec 17, 2012. (Associated Press)

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A boy runs for cover after a mortar shell hit a street and killed several people in the Bustan Al-Qasr district of Aleppo, Syria, on Monday, Dec. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras)

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Syrians, who fled their homes with their families, gather around a fire to warm themselves at a makeshift vegetables store in a camp for the displaced in the village of Atmeh, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

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Iran seems to understand it cannot hang its entire strategy on the survival of Syrian President Bashar Assad (wearing sash next to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and needs to build new alliances as contingencies. Iran has proposed a plan for elections in Syria for parliament and president. (Associated Press)