The Washington Post reports: The government siege of a Damascus suburb was broken Wednesday with delivery of medical supplies and a small amount of baby food, after Syria agreed to allow an international aid convoy to enter the area for the first time since 2012.

Arrival of United Nations and Red Cross vehicles in the rebel-held, government-surrounded city of Darayya came just hours into a June 1 deadline, after which the United States and Russia had pledged to organize airdrops for food and medicine to reach starving civilians.

Although U.S. officials said they would continue to prepare for international food delivery by air, in case the access ends, the convoys to Darayya, and to the similarly besieged city of Moadamiya, appear to have averted the latest potential escalation in ­Syria’s years-long civil war.

But they accomplished little to change a situation in which maintaining the status quo now seems the most optimistic outcome in the near term, and perhaps for the remainder of Barack Obama’s presidency.

What seemed the chance of a political solution in Syria barely three months ago now appears an ever fainter possibility. At the same time, those within the administration who have long advocated a more robust U.S. commitment to the Syrian opposition have largely given up. [Continue reading…]