Mr Kerry’s statement, after three days of private and public diplomacy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, provided an ominous endnote to a week diplomats had hoped would be a major capstone towards peace.
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“We have exchanged ideas with the Russians and we plan to consult tomorrow with respect to those ideas”, John Kerry told reporters on Thursday in NY, at the end of a multilateral meeting which lasted more than two hours and left him “even more frustrated” about efforts to renew the truce.
No one spoke of being able to quickly resuscitate the ceasefire. However, Kerry said further consultations would be held on Friday (September 23).
Aleppo, located near the borders with Turkey, is Syria’s largest city and once an economic hub.
“We’ll see what people are willing to do”.
“The US side can not guarantee the fulfilment of a whole number of elements of this agreement, which we saw in the past few days”, he said, adding that Washington “did not separate moderate Syrian rebel forces from terrorists”.
One official said the USA was “not sure” the gridlock around the failed cease-fire agreement could be resolved, while another official added it would take “extraordinary steps” for Russian Federation to preserve the agreement.
He said planes from the Syrian regime were also in the area, so he couldn’t definitely say who dropped the bombs.
GENEVA – UN aid convoys starting rolling in Syria again on Thursday after an attack on humanitarian trucks and a warehouse triggered a suspension in deliveries.
Russian Federation has denied USA claims that it was responsible, but Kerry focused on its shifting explanation of what might have happened.
“Absent a major gesture, we don’t believe there is a point in making more promises”, he insisted, suggesting United States was on the verge of scrapping the agreement if it didn’t see a cessation of air activities by the Russian and Syrian militaries, or similarly concrete action.
Assad cast doubt on the intentions of the United States in Syria, saying it “doesn’t have the will” to fight militants.
But the deal collapsed Monday after the US inadvertently struck a Syrian regime camp killing 62 regime soldiers.
The opposition says such agreements are part of a regime strategy to forcibly displace populations from opposition-held areas after years of siege and bombardment.
“The response of the Russians was not satisfying”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said, while Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders described the Assad offensive as “very negative” which gives out the “wrong signal”.
Mr Kerry said he would wait for Mr Lavrov to tell him on Friday if Russian Federation would suspend air strikes for a significant period of time. What we know are two Russian aircraft were in that area at that time.
But the president said: ‘Whatever they say, it’s just lies’.
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“Like any military operation, it starts with preparatory airstrikes and artillery, and then the ground forces work according to the results of the strikes and their impact”, the source said.
