His defiant stance doused hopes of an imminent halt to hostilities that world powers are pushing to take effect within a week.
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Troops loyal to President Assad and backed by Russian warplanes were ready to cut off rebel defenders in Aleppo last night as doubts grew over whether a truce negotiated by world powers would hold. However, he said border controls were in place to control the flow of refugees.
“It makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part”.
Russia, Syria and Iran argue that other groups, notably some supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, should not be eligible for the cease-fire, and there was no sign yesterday that those differences had been resolved.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry praised the agreement in Munich as a significant accomplishment in the five-year war, but he noted that a cessation of hostilities, if achieved, would only be a “pause” in the fighting and that more work would be needed to turn it into a full-fledged ceasefire.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed the plan will not affect operations of the US-led worldwide coalition against IS.
“The Russians say that all fighters in Aleppo are terrorists”, Ford said, predicting that Russia would continue to bomb Aleppo.
“The killing in Syria has to stop if we are to move forward and find a political solution, one that protects Syria’s independence and integrity”, he said.
“Through its military action on the side of Assad’s regime, Russian Federation had recently seriously compromised the political process”.
At a peace and security conference now underway in Munich, major powers said a peace deal could only be reached if Moscow stops bombing insurgents other than Islamic State.
In an interview with the AFP news agency in Damascus just hours before a surprise deal that also promised to grant sustained access to civilians in dire need of aid, he said that his troops would “without any hesitation” try to retake all territory lost to rebel groups.
More than 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since 2011.
NATO said on its website Friday that Stoltenberg and Lavrov “reviewed NATO-Russia relations and agreed to continue exploring the possibility of a NATO-Russia Council meeting”.
The failure to include Al-Nusra was particularly important, he said, since the group is active in Aleppo and surrounding regions, and numerous more “moderate” rebels have links with it. “There is going to be a lot more fighting on the ground before some serious ceasefire can be implemented”, Barnes-Dacey said. That would put Moscow and its allies closer to their principal goal – which is to eliminate any forces in Syria other than the Assad regime and the Islamic State.
The deal also promised to secure aid for civilians who have found themselves not only trapped in the middle of the fighting but also used as pawns.
It was announced after marathon talks in Munich aimed at resurrecting Geneva peace talks that collapsed last week.
Within a day, however, professional observers of the war had concluded that the development is fragile at best, with make-or-break issues left unaddressed, starting with whether both the Syrian government and the rebels would even accept the terms.
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At one point, Kerry said that the issue here is whether all parties will honor their commitments because “what we have here are words on paper”.
