Summary
U.S. officials held secret communications with members of President Bashar Assad's government to try to limit violence in Syria, and explored ways to encourage a military coup in 2011 as the civil war got under way, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The Obama administration shifted away from trying to influence Assad's government and toward supporting Syrian rebels in 2012, the newspaper reported.
Deputy Secretary of State William Burns made two phone calls to Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem to warn the government against using chemical weapons on a large scale, U.S. officials told the newspaper.
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