U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry took part in a 10-hour negotiation on the Syrian conflict with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva on Friday—but the lengthy talks fell far short of a desired ceasefire agreement, the Guardian reported Saturday.

"We are close [to a ceasefire]," Kerry attempted to reassure observers, according to the Guardian. "But we are not going to rush to an agreement until it satisfies fully the needs of the Syrian people."

Kerry spoke of the need for a "political solution" to the multifaceted war in Syria—a term he also used when purportedly seeking peace between Saudi Arabia and Yemen on Thursday—yet the Guardian observed that neither Russia nor the U.S. seem to believe a ceasefire is imminent, let alone achievable.

The newspaper noted: "it was clear that neither side believed an overall agreement was imminent or even achievable after numerous previous disappointments shattered a brief period of relative calm earlier this year."

The talks occurred while a barrel bomb attack on Aleppo allegedly from the Syrian regime killed at least 13 people, most of them women and children, as CNN reported.

Dire conditions in war-ravaged Aleppo have prevented other parties in the Syrian conflict from gathering at the negotiation table, the Guardian reported earlier this month.

Meanwhile, U.S.-allied Kurdish forces say they are now being bombed by U.S.-backed Turkish forces, Reuters reported Saturday, which Common Dreams noted was Turkey's goal from the start of its military incursion into Syria earlier this week.

In addition, despite the Pentagon's claims to the opposite, it appears that the U.S. is now operating no-fly zones in Syria. As investigative journalist John Hanrahan wrote earlier this year, "the recent history in Iraq and Libya demonstrate that no-fly zones are actually precursors to—or accompanists of—stepped-up military action by the United States and other western powers to bring about regime change."

There are those who are profiting from this endless war, the author Ramzy Baroud reminded readers earlier this month: "Expectedly, this is a great time for business for those who benefit from war[...] the cycle of war and violence is feeding on itself."

And so the horrors of war continue on in Syria, with no end in sight.