peace talks founder

[hela]

No, I mean in the original sentence - simple present ?

Have a nice day

[RonBee]

"the fighting in Darfur is entering a new and deadly phase --one in which the government is planning an aggressive campaign against the rebel groups fighting here as efforts to find a negotiated peace founder. "

Present progressive

[hela]

Ok, let's start again:

"the fighting in Darfur is entering a new and deadly phase --one in which the government is planning an aggressive campaign against the rebel groups fighting here as efforts to find a negotiated peace founder. "

a) "founder" here seems to be a noun, right? Doest it mean here "failure"?
b) the gvt is planning an attack against the rebel groups, right?
c) and who is "trying hard" (= "as efforts" ?) to sap, undermine (= "founder" ?) all peace negociations, the gvt or the rebels ?

[RonBee]

Ok, let's start again:

"the fighting in Darfur is entering a new and deadly phase --one in which the government is planning an aggressive campaign against the rebel groups fighting here as efforts to find a negotiated peace founder. "

a) "founder" here seems to be a noun, right? Doest it mean here "failure"?
b) the gvt is planning an attack against the rebel groups, right?
c) and who is "trying hard" (= "as efforts" ?) to sap, undermine (= "founder" ?) all peace negotiations, the gvt or the rebels ?

The word "founder" is sometimes a noun, but here it is a verb meaning "fail".

The govenment is planning an attack against the rebel groups, yes.

I can't tell how hard they were trying to negotiate a peace settlement. There were, however, making an effort of some sort.

[hela]

Good morning RonBee,

Thank you for being so patient with me
What troubled me is the way the verb "founder" was used. Why did the journalist use the present and not the present perfect, or am I still wrong?

Now if I understood the sentence well, I would have written:
"the government is planning an aggressive campaign against the rebel groups fighting here [= in Darfur ?] as [= since ?] efforts to find a negotiated peace have foundered [= have failed ?]."

Am I completely off track?"

[RonBee]

Good morning RonBee,

Thank you for being so patient with me
What troubled me is the way the verb "founder" was used. Why did the journalist use the present and not the present perfect, or am I still wrong?

Now if I understood the sentence well, I would have written:
"the government is planning an aggressive campaign against the rebel groups fighting here [= in Darfur ?] as [= since ?] efforts to find a negotiated peace have foundered [= have failed ?]."

That would be a good way to say the same thing.