Castello Road has special status under the US-Russia agreement and the United States and Russia are expected to manage a demilitarisation of the route, allowing new checkpoints to ensure the flow of aid, de Mistura said. “It does deal with sensitive issues that we believe, if made public, could potentially be misused- I know Secretary [John] Kerry talked about the spoilers or would-be spoilers of this”.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and condemned “repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid”, spokesman John Kirby said.
Syria’s military began withdrawing from a major artery into Aleppo on Thursday evening, shortly after the United Nations envoy for Syria blamed President Bashar Assad’s government for obstructing aid access to the contested city.
“I don’t think that anyone in the USA government is necessarily taking at face value Russia’s or certainly not the Syrian regime’s commitment to this arrangement”, Toner said.
Under the deal, the United States and Russian Federation will set up a joint implementation centre to cooperate in the targeting of rebels considered “terrorist” by both sides.
In Moscow, a spokesman for Russia’s Defense Ministry accused the United States of not fulfilling its obligations under the cease-fire agreement.
The United States and Russian Federation said on Friday they wanted to extend the four-day-old ceasefire in Syria they have co-sponsored, although the agreement looked increasingly shaky, undermined by increasing violence and a failure to deliver aid.
If the truce, which began on Monday, lasts seven days and humanitarian access is granted, Russian Federation and the U.S. are to work together to target jihadists including the extremist Islamic State group (IS) and former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front. Reuters reports that Syrian government forces and rebel groups have not withdrawn from the road, which is a key strategic asset in controlling the city.
Pressure on ceasefire The lack of progress on aid, almost a week after the ceasefire agreement was sealed between Russian Federation and the U.S. in Geneva, is placing pressure on the fragile ceasefire with more reports of clashes, some inside the ceasefire area.
“The United States will not compromise operational security”, the official said.
It called the strike a “serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military”, and “firm proof of the US support of Daesh and other terrorist groups”, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
In Moscow, Igor Konashenkov, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, criticized the USA for what he called a failure to remain faithful to the agreement.
Russian ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin said there was no point in briefing the council if the USA did not want to say exactly what was in the deal.
Jan Egeland, the top humanitarian aid official in de Mistura’s office, said the United Nations could reach its target areas in the country within a “few days” once it received authorization. The official wasn’t authorized to be quoted by name and demanded anonymity.
A senior rebel official in Aleppo warned that Syria’s ceasefire “will not hold out”, as air strikes and shelling continued in some places and promised aid deliveries failed to come through.
“Only the Syrian army has been observing the ceasefire regime. while the US-led “moderate opposition” has been increasing the number of shellings of residential quarters”, the ministry statement said.
He said Syrian troops were forced to return to those positions along Castello Road because they were being shelled by opposition groups.
Other officials have said they believe there is no veto authority on either side, and that the US would bear no responsibility if a Russian strike kills civilians.
Obama was due to gather top national security aides later Friday with the ceasefire set to dominate a meeting ostensibly about countering IS.
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“The president didn’t staff his national security team with “yes” men and “yes” women. the president expects to receive advice based on their differing perspectives” and expertise, Earnest said. “The president has no doubt that will happen”, he said.
