Syrian President Bashar Assad told the AP in an interview in Damascus that the United States was to blame for the deal’s failure. McCain said Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have “deluded themselves” into believing they could negotiate deals that involve Syrian President Bashar Assad and his chief backers, Russian Federation and Iran.
Advertisement
“We are sending today an inter-agency convoy that will cross conflict lines into a besieged area of rural Damascus”, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Reuters. But Assad claims the assault was no mistake.
Amid widespread disagreement Thursday between Washington and Moscow and internal dissent within the Obama administration over how or even if to proceed, Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov convened what diplomats expected to be a fractious meeting of the roughly 20 nations that have declared interests in Syria.
– On the prospects of a cease-fire: “We announced that we are ready to be committed to any halt of operations, or if you want to call it cease-fire, but it’s not about Syria or Russian Federation; it’s about the United States and the terrorist groups that have been affiliated to ISIS and al-Nusra and al-Qaida, and to the United States and to Turkey and to Saudi Arabia”.
Q: Did Syria or Russian Federation launch the attack on the Red Crescent convoy this week, and should Moscow be held responsible, as the White House has said?
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Thursday that Russia had always called for the documents to be made public.
In Washington, the State Department countered that Assad’s assertions were “ridiculous”. Instead, the two-hour discussion served as a warm-up act for a Thursday meeting blocks away in NY that will include Kerry, Lavrov and their counterparts from more than a dozen European and Arab countries.
In early August, rebels from outside Aleppo city broke the siege, recapturing a corridor. The strikes took place near the government-held airport, a frontline area where Islamic State group fighters were launching attacks.
He insisted that all sides must rein in rebel groups on the ground to ensure they comply with the ceasefire and said a list of terror groups not covered by the truce should be reviewed.
Cluster bombs have left entire streets in flames after the Syrian government announced a major offensive on rebel-held areas.
Following the strike, the global body temporarily suspended all its aid convoys to Syria for security reasons, fearing that further attacks could occur after the end of a fragile seven-day nationwide ceasefire.
Advertisement
The U.N. has accused Assad’s government of obstructing aid access to the city, despite an agreement to allow aid in during the weeklong cease-fire that ended Monday. Assad also suggested that the US, which leads a coalition against ISIS that has been conducting operations in Syria for two years, “doesn’t have the will” to work against ISIS and other extremist groups.
