Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that this was another case of those who make such accusations against Russian Federation being unable to back up their claims and said they should rely on official announcements from the Syrian government.
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U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday Russia’s involvement in Syria is testament to the Syrian government’s weakness and that it would be smarter for Russian President Vladimir Putin to help broker a political transition in Syria.
But even Washington appears to be discounting chances for a truce taking hold over the next three days.
“We’ve not seen any evidence of Turkey’s preparing any kind of ground offensive”, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
A hospital supported by Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) in Idlib province in Syria that was destroyed in an attack on Monday, is believed to be the seventeenth such medical facility to come under fire in this year, Avril Benoit, MSF’s director of communication has said.
Obama also says Russian Federation has been a party to the destruction of Syria, and will be left in a quagmire there. The projected truce agreed on Friday in Munich was to begin in a week, but there has been no sign it would happen.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has cast doubt on the prospects of a proposed ceasefire in his country’s grinding civil war.
“What we want is to create a secure strip, including Azaz, 10km deep inside Syria and this zone should be free from clashes”, Akdogan said in an interview on Turkey’s AHaber television station, Reuters reports.
Sunni Arab Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said this month they were ready to send ground forces as part of an worldwide coalition against Islamic State, providing Washington takes the lead.
In comments to Syria’s central Bar Association, reported in Syria’s state news agency SANA, Assad said many questions remain about which groups in the conflict could be classified as terrorists. Turkey said Tuesday it is pressing for ground operations in Syria amid fears that U.S.-backed Kurdish militants are making gains at the opposition’s expense.
Balanche said Assad may not be enchanted by Moscow’s support for the Kurds, but he has no choice as his very “future depends on the backing of Russia”.
Turkey meanwhile shelled Kurdish positions in northern Syria for a fourth straight day Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.
The current biggest killer of civilians in Syria is not the country’s army or the Islamic State terror group – but Russian Federation itself, according to an independent watchdog.
The YPG and its SDF allies also captured the nearby village of Kafr Naseh on Monday, SOHR reported. In a brief statement to reporters after the meeting, de Mistura said the talks focused on “the issue of humanitarian and hindered access to all besieged areas, not only by the government but also by the opposition and ISIL”, another acronym that refers to the IS.
“There are literally U.S.-backed groups fighting other U.S.-backed groups right now”, he said.
Hammond said that Russian Federation needed to “explain itself” and demonstrate it was committed to ending the conflict, rather than fueling it.
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In Damascus, the United Nations envoy to Syria suggested that humanitarian aid would be allowed into several besieged areas Wednesday, calling it the “duty of the government of Syria”.
