It didn’t take long for the breakdown in cease-fire talks between the United States and Russian Federation to affect the situation on the ground in Syria.
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Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have met several times this week in NY, including yesterday as joint chairs of the 23-nation International Syria Support Group (ISSG).
Kerry says he will meet Lavrov again to try to narrow differences after collapse of truce and resumption of violence.
The gathering of the International Syria Support Group, which includes the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, and several other countries, occurred on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly. -Russian cease-fire deal, but once again illustrated why they’ve been unable for more than five years to stop Syria’s civil war. The official said Kerry and Lavrov never even reached a tentative understanding between themselves, let alone their governments.
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.
And after Kerry consulted others in the Obama administration, he told Lavrov that the truce should last a week, said the officials, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
Lavrov told Russian media that consultations would continue to “guarantee” the cease-fire.
“But we can t be the only ones trying to hold this door open”.
He called for the immediate grounding of planes and helicopters that have launched airstrikes, including a Russian one earlier this week that the US says hit an aid convoy, killing 20 civilians.
Russian Federation has denied US 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 USA 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.
First, an errant US strike on a Syrian military contingent killed dozens.
Ryabkov said the deal was the best possible option amid sharp disagreements over Syria, adding that Russian and USA diplomats need to “calmly sit down and think what needs to be done to keep the agreement afloat”.
Lavrov had sought a three-day pause in fighting to revive the cease-fire.
Kerry and others made the point repeatedly to Lavrov that Russian Federation had to undertake new steps that go beyond previous agreements to salvage the process.
Lavrov also alleged that rebel forces had refused to retreat from the key Castello Road leading into Aleppo, as had been foreseen by the September 9 US-Russian plan.
“We’re evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way”, Kerry said before a meeting with Asia-Pacific ministers on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders.
Kerry said he would wait for Lavrov to tell him Friday if Russian Federation would suspend airstrikes for a significant period of time. He called for the U.N.to expand its terrorism list to include groups at the fringes of a USA -backed rebel umbrella group and called Washington’s errant strike an “outrageous violation”.
In the same vein, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, another Assad ally, said the USA proposal would help “terrorists”.
“This course has no foundation, no logic”, said Rouhani, whose country has directed Iranian troops and Hezbollah forces in support of Assad.
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Larvov and Kerry’s speeches laid bare their widely divergent views of a war that has killed up to a half-million people, contributed to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II and allowed the Islamic State to emerge as a global terror threat.
