But he said the United States needs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and his chief ally, Russia, to “do their part”.
Advertisement
U.S. Secretary of State Kerry said following the meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that Washington will continue to push for a truce and a political transition to end the five-year-old war in Syria.
Kerry said the bombing raised “profound doubt” about whether Russian Federation and its Syrian ally were committed to upholding a ceasefire.
Dunford told the committee Thursday he supports the idea of grounding only Russian and Syrian jets, but not coalition aircraft.
Laerke told AFP in an email that this was the first convoy to head towards a besieged area since Monday’s attack on a humanitarian convoy which killed around 20 people, including a Red Cross staffer.
Had the truce held, Russian Federation and the United States were due to exchange information about targets in Syria.
“The question now is whether there remains any real chance at moving forward, because it’s clear we can not continue on the same path any longer”, Kerry added.
The Syrian army has announced the start of an offensive to retake rebel-held districts of Aleppo city, just as worldwide powers with a stake in Syria’s civil war convened in NY in an attempt to revive a collapsed ceasefire.
The Syrian regime and Russian air forces have bombarded the city’s civilians in rebel-held areas.
The International Syrian Contact Group includes both the USA and Russian Federation.
The conflict has wrought a devastating human toll, killing hundreds of thousands, displacing half the country’s pre-war population of 22 million and included poison gas attacks, starvation sieges and raids on hospitals.
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that a U.S. Predator drone was in the area where a United Nations aid convoy was partially destroyed in Syria on Monday and had appeared on the scene minutes before the incident.
“We can confirm that NONE of our aircraft – manned or unmanned, USA or Coalition – were anywhere in the vicinity of Aleppo when the strike against the humanitarian convoy occurred”, said Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis.
First a United States-led airstrike on Saturday, meant to hit Islamic State positions, instead killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers.
Moscow has firmly denied involvement in the attacks. “You don’t commit a mistake for more than one hour”. The U.S. and its allies acknowledged the errant strike and have apologized for it.
But he also offered one concrete suggestion to revive diplomatic hopes: to ground all aircraft in key areas, focused on protecting aid routes in northern Syria.
More than 50 people were reportedly killed in Aleppo.
Advertisement
A damaged site after airstrikes on the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo.
