But even as Kerry vowed to press on with all efforts to find a peaceful solution to the war between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Russian-backed government and USA -backed rebels, the American acknowledged the current strategy wasn’t working.
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“It was a long, painful, hard and disappointing meeting”, the U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters after the meeting of the International Syria Support Group, which includes about two dozen major and regional powers.
In an address Friday to the General Assembly, Lavrov made it clear that Russian Federation will not accede to Kerry’s demand, insisting instead on the responsibility of the US and it allies to separate “so-called moderate opposition from terrorists”.
The fresh attacks are further evidence that last week’s ceasefire, brokered by Washington and Moscow, hangs by a thread.
During the week-long truce, there was a lull in violence rather than a halt.
This comes as the U.S.is trying to revive a weeklong truce that fell apart on Monday.
“It’s clear we can not continue on the same path”, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry told reporters Thursday after a round of high-level talks on the sidelines of the United Nations.
“I am no less determined today than I was yesterday but I am even more frustrated”, said Kerry.
A member of the city’s forensic team, Muhammad Abu Jaafar, said he had documented 54 deaths since late on September 22, including many women and children. The offensive came after Kerry and Lavrov failed to agree in NY talks on the terms for reviving a ceasefire that collapsed on Monday.
Rebel officials said heavy air strikes on Saturday hit at least four areas of the opposition-held east, home to more than 250,000 people.
The Associated Press sat down with Syrian President Bashar Assad at a palace in downtown Damascus.
On Thursday night, the Syrian military publicized “the start of its operations in the eastern districts of Aleppo”, warning people of the danger and telling them to stay away from “the headquarters and positions of the armed terrorist gangs”.
“So, we don’t have any idea about what happened”. It has repeatedly changed hands between government forces and insurgents. “The planes are not leaving the sky, helicopters, barrel bombs, warplanes”.
Rebels say the strikes are mostly being carried out by Russian warplanes.
Meanwhile the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that more than 6,000 people, in large part ISIS militants, have been killed in two years of airstrikes by the US-led global coalition in Syria.
Before the war, the city held almost 3 million people and was Syria’s economic hub. The Syrian government claimed that instead of using the time to allow human aid deliveries, the militants amassed more troops and regrouped reinforcements.
She added that “another monitor found that in one six-month period at the beginning of 2015, the regime killed almost 8,000 civilians”.
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Seven people were killed in a strike on the Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood as they queued to buy yoghurt at a market.
