With time running out for the besieged people of Aleppo and for a US administration with barely three months left on the clock, John Kerry is looking for new ideas. In two days of international talks over the weekend, Washington's chief diplomat continued to bang his well-worn drum for a renewed ceasefire in Syria's ugly conflict. But he's hit a brick wall trying to convince Russia to impose a ceasefire.

The threat of new sanctions is the clearest indication yet of the barren nature of the weekend talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian  Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The pair met for around five hours in Lausanne, Switzerland, both leaving with nothing other than the hope for new ideas to end the carnage in Syria's second city, Aleppo. That Russia should be included with Syria in the threat of sanctions another marker that U.S. and European leaders believe Russia is more part of the tragedy than the solution. 

This call for sanctions comes ahead of a European Union meeting this week where heads of government will be  talking on the own ideas of the tightening sanctions. As a Russian fleet of seven warships heads to the Syrian coast, it's uncertain what effect they will have other than to possibly heighten further East West tensions.