President Barack Obama urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his air campaign against Syrian opposition forces during a phone call Saturday, the White House said, a day after Putin’s deputy described relations between Moscow and Washington sinking to Cold War depths.
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“I can’t say categorically that a week from last Thursday there must be a cessation of hostilities, but certainly we’re going to expect that there is progress”, State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said.
A task force of world powers was charged with negotiating the terms of the cessation of hostilities, which Kerry said would take place on Friday, but Toner acknowledged had yet to meet.
During the interview, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson also addressed the issue of the ongoing Turkish shelling of Kurdish positions as well as of some settlements in the northern Syria denouncing it as “an absolutely unacceptable situation”.
“The intensified bombings, the displacement, the fact that civilian entities have been hit by the regime and its backers, is of grave concern”, she said.
The agency noted that “a Russian-backed offensive by Syrian government troops and their allies around Aleppo has yet to stop”. At the same time she criticized the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia for their inability to effectively influence other opposition groups, which they back and sponsor, and bring to the table without preconditions.
Residents and civil defense members look for survivors at a damaged site after what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in the Al-Shaar nighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria September 17, 2015.
He said the political situation in Syria had not changed in the past year.
Despite all the recent talk of ceasefire, the conflict is threatening to escalate.
Syria also said Turkish forces were believed to be among 100 gunmen that entered Syria on Saturday with a dozen pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns in an operation to supply rebel fighters. Toner said a U.S.-Russian-led task force that is supposed to map out the details of the truce still hasn’t even met. He expressed hope of an initial gathering Wednesday.
“It’s hard to do, because there’s been a lot of bloodshed”, said Obama.
The United States has said it carried out no military operations in the attacked area.
The telephone conversation was organized at the initiative of the US side. He wants to shore up the Assad regime.
Four hospitals and a school were struck Monday in the northern Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday, killing at least 46 people and injuring scores of others.
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“Russia is determined to create facts on the ground”, Roettgen said.
