He said in a statement Friday that “the people of Syria – in Aleppo, Madaya, Foua and Kfarya, Deir el-Zour and elsewhere – need an end to the brutal violence and bombing, the sieges, denial of free movement, food and medical care”.
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Mr. Miller tells the Christian Science Monitor via email, “the Saudis have always been more concerned about removing Iranian ally [Syrian President] Bashar Assad from power in Syria than they have been about directly fighting ISIS”.
“Now it’s important to implement what has been agreed because sometimes we come to an agreement but our partners do not seek to honour that agreement in practice”, Lavrov said.
Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Al-Jubeir called Assad the “single most effective magnet for extremists and terrorists in the region” and said his removal was crucial for restoring stability. Saudi Arabia has been a member of the US-led coalition that has been launching airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria since September 2014, but the Kingdom has limited its involvement to arming and supplying certain rebel groups in Syria.
When asked whether America was doing enough to help bring an end to the bloodshed in Syria, Jubeir said they are “playing a role” in the political process, in supporting the opposition, and helping Syria’s neighbors.
And there are doubts about whether the deal can be implemented, because Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he’s not bound by the deal.
Egeland told reporters Friday that he hoped aid could roll in “once we have all the access that we need”.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is sharply criticizing Russian Federation for its actions in Ukraine and Syria, accusing Moscow of “repeated aggression” in both places.
More than 250,000 people have been killed and some 11 million displaced in nearly five years of fighting in Syria. Much of the current discourse about Russian Federation in the Middle East and specifically Syria portrays issues as even more zero-sum than they were during the Cold War, and certainly more than they are now.
Iran and Saudi Arabia were at the same table during six hours of talks in Munich among world and regional powers on Thursday to discuss Syria’s civil war, agreeing a “cessation of hostilities” to take effect in a week’s time.
How has the world reacted?
The United States raised the threat of escalation in the ground war, apparently in a bid to force Russian Federation and Syria to comply with the truce. He added that halting hostilities would be a hard task. According to an AP report, Brett McGurk, the Obama administration’s point person focusing on destroying ISIS, told a Congressional panel that Moscow’s Aleppo offensive is weaning the local fighters away from the fight against ISIS to the war against Syria’s government.
Carter declined to say how many Emirati commandos would go to Syria.
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Neocon-dominated Official Washington is in freak-out mode about the success of the Russian-backed Syrian army around Aleppo, reviving long-discredited claims about “moderate” rebels and ignoring Al Qaeda’s key presence. The Syrian government is besieging a number of rebel strongholds throughout the country, leaving thousands on the brink of starvation.
