US Secretary of State John Kerry said on May 15 that “the grave humanitarian crisis is growing more dire by the day” in Syria and promised new efforts to get aid to besieged Syrians, including alternatives to working through Damascus.

His remarks came two days after Lakhdar Brahimi, the Joint United Nations-League of Arab States special representative for Syria, resigned from his post, saying he was “very, very sad to leave Syria in such a bad state.”

The urgency of Syria’s crisis might compel Kerry to pick up Iran’s signals on Syria, and to consider the precedent of localized cease-fires, such as the one negotiated in Homs this month by Syrian government officials, opposition leaders, and Iranian, Russian and UN diplomats, as discussed in this column last week.

While Iran is the number one backer of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Tehran has also consistently advocated international cooperation against al-Qaeda and related groups; disarmament of Syria’s chemical weapons; and humanitarian relief and aid corridors, which are all shared interests with the United States.