A day after President Barack Obama made his case for both military intervention and diplomacy in Syria, world powers worked Wednesday to defuse the crisis.

Syria has agreed to a Russian plan to give up its chemical weapons, a move that could forestall international military strikes and possibly give diplomacy some positive traction.

But the bloody conflict in Syria continues to rage, and roadblocks and questions remain as to what's next for the war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation.

Latest developments Wednesday:

-- Republican House member Mo Brooks of Alabama said he rejects President Obama's "argument that the best way to keep Syrians from killing Syrians is for Americans to kill Syrians. America has peaceful options. We should pursue them more vigorously."


Scroll down for the rest of President Obamas speech on Syria

Previous developments:
World diplomacy
-- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be heading to Geneva, Switzerland, for talks Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The two diplomats have talked nine times since the August 21 attack.

-- French President Francois Hollande, in a statement, said Paris is determined to explore all avenues at the U.N. Security Council "to allow an effective and verifiable monitoring" of chemical weapons in Syria. "France will remain - in constant contact with its partners - ready to" take action against "the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and to dissuade it from doing it again," Hollande said.

-- China says it will stay in communication with all relevant parties on possible actions that could be taken by the U.N. Security Council. "We maintain that actions taken by the Security Council should be based on the consensus reached between all parties through full consultation. And these actions should help ease tensions in Syria, maintain stability in the region and solve the Syrian issue politically," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

-- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "the proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons beyond use is potentially a positive development" and that "the Syrian regime must now demonstrate that they are willing to implement this without any delay." Barroso stressed that "only a political solution stands a chance of delivering the lasting peace that the Syrian people deserve."

-- The United States, France, and the United Kingdom are discussing a U.N. Security Council draft resolution, according to a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron. "The Russian government has put an idea forward and the situation has moved forward a bit quicker that initially envisaged," the spokesman said.

-- The Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, urged the U.S. Congress and parliaments of other nations to drop plans for an American attack on Syria, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported.

U.S. Congress:

-- Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democratic senator, is part of a bipartisan group of senators working on an alternative resolution on Syria that would set key benchmarks that must be met to avoid a military strike in Syria. "What we're working on now, a number of us in the Senate, is a measure that will still incorporate, maintain the use of force authorization," he told CNN's "New Day." "But added to that would be a set of conditions that the Syrian regime would have to meet. They'd have to meet them on a strict timetable."

-- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "all eyes are on" Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow pursues an initiative to put Syrian chemical arms under international control. "We all know that he was former head of the KGB. We all know about the KGB. He is president of that very big country and we are all so grateful that even though relations aren't perfect with Russia they are OK. So much better than they have been prior to the breakup of that massive country, the Soviet Union. So we hope that Russia is a productive partner in these negotiations."

-- U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, said he wished President Obama was "just as concerned about Americans murdered by terrorists" in Benghazi, Libya last year as he is with "Syrians being killed by Syrians."

On the ground:

-- Oxfam, the aid and development charity, says it welcomes steps by the United States and other governments to seek "peaceful means of bringing Syria's life threatening chemical weapons under control." "We have serious concerns that the use of military intervention will damage the prospects for peace and threatens to further destabilize the region," President Ray Offenheiser said.

-- Israeli President Shimon Peres weighed in Wednesday on the crisis."The world cannot remain silent regarding the bloodshed and murder of children that is taking place in Syria. Diplomacy is always preferable to war but the main issue at present is integrity and in particular the integrity of the Syrian regime. If Syria is honest and will take real steps to remove and destroy the chemical weapons in its territory, the U.S. will not attack. If there will be a crack in Syria's integrity I have no doubt that the U.S. will act militarily. Syria will not go back to being what it was, the war and terror have divided that country into parts, into a number of countries."

-- Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said on Twitter "there is no military solution to this crisis and that the cycle of violence and the continuing bloodshed of the Syrian people MUST stop as soon as possible."

-- "The Russian initiative to put the Syrian chemical weapons under international control represents a significant development in the course of addressing the current crisis," Elaraby tweeted.

U.N. Commission of Inquiry report:

-- The U.N. Commission of Inquiry report about Syria issued Wednesday details nine mass killings from March to June, eight believed to be carried out by government and pro-government forces and one thought to be perpetrated by anti-government armed groups.

-- One of the eight massacres the report attributed to government forces was a notorious event that occurred in the village of al-Bayda last May.

-- Some victims in al-Bayda "appeared to have been hit in the head with blunt, heavy objects. Bodies of 30 women, also apparently executed, were found in a house not far from the centre while tens of bodies were strewn in the streets. Between 150-250 civilians were allegedly killed," the report said. "There are reasonable grounds to believe that government forces and affiliated militia including the National Defence Forces are the perpetrators of the Al-Bayda massacre."

-- "Government forces have committed crimes against humanity, war crimes and violations of international human rights law" and "some anti-government armed groups have committed war crimes," according to the U.N. panel, which is investigating the violation of international law in the Syria crisis.

-- Fighting is "raging between Government forces, pro-Government forces, anti-Government armed groups and Kurdish armed groups," the commission said Wednesday. Civilians "continue to pay the price for the failure to negotiate an end to this conflict," the commission said.

-- "Government and pro-government forces have continued to conduct widespread attacks on the civilian population, committing murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearance as crimes against humanity," the commission said. "They have laid siege to neighborhoods and subjected them to indiscriminate shelling. Government forces have committed gross violations of human rights and the war crimes of torture, hostage-taking, murder, execution without due process, rape, attacking protected objects and pillage."

-- "Anti-government armed groups have committed war crimes, including murder, execution without due process, torture, hostage-taking and attacking protected objects. They have besieged and indiscriminately shelled civilian neighborhoods."

-- "Anti-government and Kurdish armed groups have recruited and used child soldiers in hostilities," the report said.

-- "Allegations were received regarding the use of chemical weapons, predominantly by government forces," the commission said. "On the evidence currently available, it was not possible to reach a finding about the chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrators. Investigations are ongoing."

-- "The majority of casualties result from unlawful attacks using conventional weapons. Nevertheless, the debate over what international action to take, if any, has assumed new urgency following the alleged use of chemical weapons in August," the commission said.

-- Recent missions to Syria, including a U.N. mission to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons, "give rise to hopes that the commission will be able to visit the country in the near future," the commission said.

-- The commission said "regional armed actors" have gotten involved with the conflict "increasingly on sectarian lines."

-- Hezbollah militants fight with the government and Iraqi Shiites are traveling to Syria to fight for the regime, the U.N. report said.

-- Iran has extended a $3.6 billion credit line to the government. A loan from Russia "is reportedly under discussion, while pre-conflict arms deals between Moscow and Damascus continue to be honored."

-- Influential Sunni clerics from several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are urging Sunnis "to join the jihad against" the Syrian government and its supporters. There are appeals for money and weapons to anti-government armed groups.