Diplomats fear a bloody end game in Syria International diplomacy has shifted into overdrive following the Damascus attack that struck at the heart of the regime of President Basher al-Assad. On a significant day in the Syrian conflict, White House spokesperson Jay Carney called for collective action to stem the violence: I think the incident today makes clear that Assad is losing control, that violence is increasing rather than decreasing, and that all of our partners, internationally, need to support a transition. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius fears that chaos may take hold in Syria: We all know that the origin of all this violence is the behaviour of Bashar al-Assad's regime, so when this regime conducts massacres you have reactions on the opposite side, terrorism can develop and it is Syria itself, the heart of Syria that risks destruction. Italy wants and end to the Assad regime and a coming together of the various opposition groups. Giulio Terzi is the Italian Foreign Minister: There is a political solution that is based on the departure of Assad and his cronies along with the positive participation of the various strands of the opposition, hopefully united. It remains to be seen if recent events in Damascus will lead to collective action by global powers to bring an end to the conflict that looks set to spiral deeper into violence.