My judgement would be that they did (it)”, General Joseph Dunford told a Senate hearing.”There were also some other aircraft in the area that belonged to the regime, at or about the same time, so I can’t conclusively say that it was the Russians. That’s what they should accuse first: the people or the militants, the terrorists who are responsible for the security of this convoy.
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“It’s hard to blame the United Nations for a situation when this is about great power politics, and about actors on the ground who can’t agree”, he said.
The U.S. secretary of state said there was near unanimity in the ISSG meeting “that this process is the only viable path forward”.
Lavrov said that the Syrian opposition seeking to oust Assad needs to take steps toward a compromise to prevent extremist groups like the Islamic State “from taking the advantage of the situation”. Turkey sees the Kurds as a long-term political threat.
The announcement suggested that Syria’s government has no intention of complying with any further cease-fire requests from the global community, despite appeals by Secretary of State John Kerry the day before to revive the failed attempt to stop the fighting.
FACTS: The U.N. blamed the Syrian government for the failure to deliver aid to Aleppo during the cease-fire last week. The Pentagon, however, voiced reservations about coordinating airstrikes and sharing intelligence with Russian Federation.
The United States and Russian Federation are taking their differences over the conflict in Syria to new heights, after trading ferocious allegations of duplicity and malfeasance at the United Nations Security Council in NY.
As the diplomats huddled in a NY hotel, Syria’s military command said it would restart operations in the northern city of Aleppo, scene of some of the bitterest fighting in recent months.
A USA official said the US believes with a very high degree of confidence that a Russian-piloted aircraft carried out the strike.
A furious Kerry then told the entire room, Lavrov included, that “even while we are meeting here, they are doing this”, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
The UN suspended land deliveries after the convoy attack, which the Syrian Arab Red Crescent says killed a staff member and around 20 civilians. The Syrian government claimed that instead of using the time to allow human aid deliveries, the militants amassed more troops and regrouped reinforcements.
He called for the immediate grounding of planes and helicopters that have launched air strikes, including a Russian one earlier this week that the United States says hit an aid convoy, killing 20 civilians. -Russian brokered cease-fire had failed, and United Nations officials reported many dead and seriously wounded. They include, after a period of time, coordinated air strikes by the USA and Russian Federation on Islamic State and on the Front for the Conquest of Syria, a group with ties to the Al Qaeda affiliate formerly known as the Al Nusra Front.
Meanwhile, at a UN Security Council session originally envisioned to enshrine Syria’s September 9 truce, the U.S. and Russian Federation abandoned diplomatic niceties in a fractious public debate over Syria, blaming each other for spoiling the ceasefire and offering only temporary patches to stem the bloodshed.
“American officials – they say something in the morning and they do the opposite in the evening”, he said.
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“So please, President Assad, do your bit to enable us get to eastern Aleppo and also the other besieged areas”.
