By Karen DeYoung, Ed O’Keefe and Colum Lynch, Washington Post,

The Senate is shelving for now a resolution to authorize the use of force against Syria, deferring to diplomatic efforts as Secretary of State John F. Kerry prepares for a potentially crucial meeting Thursday with his Russian counterpart in Geneva on a proposal to disarm Syria’s chemical weapons.

Announcing the move on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said, “We’ve agreed on a way forward based on the president’s speech last night.” He referred to President Obama’s nationally televised address in which he said he would seize the diplomatic opening offered by the Russians, while also arguing that the United States must retaliate for a Syrian chemical weapons attack last month if the

Barack Obama Address To The Nation On Syria – FULL – 9/10/13

Reid said the Senate would move on so as “not to tread water” on the Syrian issue. But talks on the wording of a new use-of-force resolution against Syria will continue among members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and other senior senators who are often involved in foreign affairs and military policy.

Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will try to forge agreement on how to launch — and enforce — an international effort to transfer and destroy Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad allegedly used on Aug. 21 to kill more than 1,400 civilians in rebel-held or contested areas outside Damascus.

Although Russia proposed the international effort Monday — and quickly elicited backing from Syria — Lavrov and President Vladi­mir Putin just as quickly rejected a French proposal for a U.N. Security Council resolution to establish a legally binding chemical inspection regime, backed by the authorization to use force if Syria did not comply.

Putin called the threat of military action “unacceptable” and said a weapons deal would work only if the United States and its allies renounced using force against Syria.

In his speech Tuesday night, Obama told Americans that he would try one last time to eliminate the outlawed weapons through diplomacy. But if that effort fails, he said, the United States must be willing to launch military strikes that would degrade Assad’s ability to use such weapons.

“Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria, along with our leadership of a world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used.” Obama said.

Obama’s much-anticipated speech drew little reaction from world leaders overnight and mixed responses at home.