Administration advocates of a more muscular United States response said on Wednesday that it was not clear what, if anything, the president would do, and that his options “begin at tougher talk”, as one official put it.
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But with Russian Federation on the UN Security Council that is very unlikely to happen.
The Syrian army said a Nusra Front position had been destroyed in Aleppo’s old quarter, and other militant-held areas targeted in “concentrated air strikes” near the city.
But gains have proven ephemeral in the battle for Aleppo: government forces captured Handarat last Saturday, only to surrender it again Sunday.
Russian Federation has made a decision to throw its military might behind the Syrian regime’s drive to recapture divided Aleppo in a bid to strong-arm Washington into accepting Moscow’s demands, analysts say.
The advance may distract from the offensive by the Syrian army and its allies, Shi’ite militias and Russia’s air force, on rebel-held eastern Aleppo following a massive bombardment since a ceasefire collapsed last week.
Kirby said the suspension of cooperation would include the so-called joint implementation center, which was supposed to function as a hub for greater US and Russian cooperation in the war, including shared targeting and intelligence gathering.
“We have found the strategy of implementing sanctions in close coordination with our partners to be a much more effective way for us to maximize the impact of financial sanctions”, he said.
The US ultimatum to Russia comes as global humanitarian workers issued increasingly desperate pleas about the calamity faced by some 250,000 people in besieged eastern Aleppo in Syrian and Russian air assaults, including the use of bunker-busting munitions that kill people sheltering in underground bomb shelters. Shelling also damaged a bakery, killing six residents queuing up for bread under a siege that has trapped 250,000 people with food running out.
It says at least 223 children have been wounded since Friday.
Since Sept. 19 when the Syrian regime ended a week-long cease-fire, nearly 500 civilians were killed and hundreds injured in attacks on the war-battered city.Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the “Arab Spring” uprisings with unexpected ferocity. Now, there are only two hospitals with surgical capacity left in a city that continues to experience a brutal and relentless onslaught from aid and land.
The head of the organisation, also known by its French acronym MSF, said people are being taken off life support because of a “multitude” of wounded patients, and doctors in eastern Aleppo are left to “await their own deaths”.
He likened the project to border walls in other countries, such as the one between parts of Mexico and the US. On the contrary, Secretary of State John F. Kerry insisted he will continue to go back to the regime of Vladimir Putin with diplomatic offers, hoping it will choose to stop bombing.
“They know they are committing war crimes”.
“Those using ever more destructive weapons know exactly they are doing”, said Ki-moon.
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It was unclear who had carried out the bombings, which United Nations chief Ban denounced before the Security Council. “The message to the Foreign Minister (Russia) today was that we are perfectly willing and able to move forward on those steps that would end with the suspension of US-Russia bi-lateral engagement in Syria”. “This is worse. Even a slaughterhouse is more humane”.
