Moscow reacted furiously to “unsubstantiated” accusations from the United States that Syrian or Russian planes were responsible for bombing an aid convoy in Syria’s Aleppo.
Advertisement
The escalation of violence against humanitarian workers has all but destroyed a cease-fire that took effect on September 12, and has stoked tensions between the truce’s architects, the USA and Russian Federation, which have traded blame for running it into the ground.
“All of our information indicates clearly that this was an airstrike”.
The Russian military says a USA drone was flying over the area when an aid convoy was attacked in Syria on Monday.
Monday’s attack on the aid convoy, which the Syrian Red Crescent says killed 20 sparked furious worldwide condemnation. The convoy was carrying United Nations aid.
A Russian defense official said Wednesday a U.S. Predator attack drone showed up nearby just minutes before an aid convoy was attacked while en route to deliver humanitarian relief to rebels in the Syrian civil war. But that is only possible if the Russians and Syrians do their parts, Kerry said.
“We are at a make-or-break moment”, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, opening the session.
The United States and Russian Federation are to chair a meeting in NY on Thursday bringing together world powers with a stake in Syria’s civil war, officials told AFP.
Kerry has demanded that Russian Federation order Assad to ground his air force in order to re-establish the credibility of the peace effort in the eyes of the suspicious opposition.
He said that previous breaks in bombing by the government side had only allowed the rebels to re-arm and strengthen their positions and urged United Nations members to revisit the list of banned terrorist groups excluded from the ceasefire.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key presided over the session, which also included US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sparring over the botched coalition airstrikes and this week’s bombing of a United Nations aid truck convoy in Syria.
At least four staff members at The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) were killed, and one nurse is in critical condition Wednesday after an airstrike hit a medical facility in Syria on Tuesday night.
The attack drew worldwide condemnation and prompted the U.N.to suspend aid shipments in Syria, where some 6 million people live in besieged or hard-to-reach places. Twenty civilians were killed when the Syrian Red Crescent convoy was struck.
The attack came two days after warplanes from the US-led coalition mistakenly killed dozens of Syrian government troops in a strike meant to target ISIS.
On Sunday, ISIS shot down another Syrian jet in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
Advertisement
“On Monday, 20 aid workers were killed in an outrageous, sustained, two-hour attack directed at a fully authorized humanitarian mission near Aleppo – fully authorized”, Kerry told the Security Council this morning.
