RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. The planning for next week's peace conference on Syria must be going well. At the Paris meeting Secretary of State John Kerry presented his Russian counterpart with two Idaho potatoes, a gift. Which prompted Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to wonder if the potatoes might symbolize a carrot and stick approach to Syria. Actually, the long and pointed potatoes do look a little like carrots, but Kerry insisted no hidden meaning, no metaphor, just potatoes. It's MORNING EDITION.