Foreign ministers emerged from a meeting in NY having failed to find a way back to a ceasefire, though the United State’s Kerry said he was willing to keep trying if Russian Federation came back with new ideas.
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He wants the warplanes to halt flights over aid routes, while Mr Lavrov suggested a possible three-day pause in fighting to get the truce back on track.
Assad also scoffed at the idea that Syria’s “White Helmets” – civil defense volunteers in opposition held areas seen by many as symbols of bravery and defiance – might be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize after a nomination earlier this year.
Heavy clashes gripped the outskirts of Aleppo on Thursday, after air strikes triggered major fires across the city’s devastated rebel-held districts.
In the interview, Assad tells AP that the USA deliberately targeted Syrian government soldiers in an airstrike that killed dozens.
The Observatory said there were at least 40 air strikes since midnight.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said overnight strikes on the districts of Bustan Al Qasr and Al Kalasseh were the most intense in months. Russian Federation said the strikes killed more than 60 Syrian troops, and afterward, IS militants briefly overran government positions in the area until they were beaten back.
Residents of east Aleppo have been living under government siege since early September. “How can we prevent the food and the medical aid from reaching that area and we cannot stop the armaments from reaching that area, which is not logical?”
During the brief cease-fire, trucks carrying aid sat idle by the nearby Turkish border, awaiting permits and safety guarantees.
“The good news is that Russian Federation and the U.S. agreed to work intensely on a possible restoration of it”, UN Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura told reporters. So it was especially depressing Wednesday when Kerry confessed in a speech at the United Nations that he entertained “profound doubt” about whether Russian Federation and the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad were serious about living up to their commitments to reduce violence and make it possible for humanitarian aid to be distributed.
The United Nations suspended land deliveries after the convoy attack, which the Syrian Arab Red Crescent says killed a staff member and around 20 civilians.
The diplomatic back-and-forth between the two countries has made efforts towards ending violence in the country increasingly hard, with two ceasefires already failing this year, and Damascus emboldened by Russia’s support and looking to seize a strategic victory in Aleppo.
Sounding a cautious note about the NY talks, Mr Kerry told reporters on Wednesday that “it’s going to be hard”.
“Just an hour after I left, a missile destroyed their whole building and they both died under the r ubble”, Ahmad said.
The UN Security Council met Wednesday for crisis talks on Syria as air raids shook Aleppo and diplomatic tensions ran high over an attack on an aid convoy.
As the besieged city of Aleppo suffered its heaviest air strikes in months, the Foreign Secretary said Moscow was waging a “proxy war” in the country.
According to Kerry, Syrian regime is hitting opposition groups under the cover of fighting against extremist groups. “We’re loading, we hope to go soon”, he said.
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But the United Nations peace envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was downbeat, calling it a “long, painful and disappointing meeting”.
