Syrian government envoys threatened on Friday to leave a peace conference on ending the conflict should efforts to secure a face-to-face meeting with opposition representatives fail.

The United States and India could soon reschedule a visit by the U.S. energy secretary that was cancelled because of a diplomatic row, New Delhi said after foreign minister Salman Khurshid met his counterpart U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.

Egypt’s military-backed interim president said Thursday that the country’s uprisings have put an end to the police state and to abuses, part of a campaign to rebrand the security forces amid a heavy handed crackdown on Islamists and other critics of the government.