The meeting comes as pro-government forces continue their intense bombardment of Aleppo, with the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying at least 23 people were killed in the latest airstrikes on Sunday.
Advertisement
Hospitals in the city are reporting that they are overwhelmed with casualties.
United Nations children’s charity, UNICEF, said this week’s renewed airstrikes – which further dashed hopes of reviving last week’s cease-fire – had damaged a water pumping station which supplies about 250,000 people in rebel-held eastern parts and violence is preventing fix teams from reaching it.
Hundreds of airstrikes have pummeled the city since the Syrian government, backed by Russian Federation, announced a renewed, “comprehensive” offensive on Thursday following the collapse of the short-lived ceasefire.
On Sunday, British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said Russians were guilty of protracting the war in Syria.
Papadopoulos further stated the U.S. was never committed to the ceasefire, adding that the end of the truce would benefit the Americans as they can maintain their presence in northern Syria.
The Syrian army’s new offensive in the rebel-held east of Aleppo has intensified.
The United Nations Security Council met on Sunday at the request of the United States, Britain and France to discuss the escalation of fighting in Aleppo following the announcement on Thursday of an offensive by the Syrian army to retake the city. Abdallah al-Nafissi, a Kuwaiti politician with more than a million followers on Twitter wrote that “the Western (and especially American) silence for the hell in Aleppo and the random Russian bombing is clear proof of the worldwide conspiracy against the Syrian people”.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that it was right to ask whether Russian forces had deliberately targeted civilians. In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense group known as the White Helmets, shows members of Civil Defense removing a dead body from under the rubble after airstrikes hit in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, .
The United States has pointed its finger at the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, blaming it for the breakdown of the cessation of hostilities and demanding the grounding of all military aircraft.
The meeting was called by Britain, France and the United States to turn up the pressure on Russian Federation to rein in its ally Syria and halt the intense bombing campaign on Aleppo.
“They (Russia) are guilty of protracting this war and making it far more disgusting and, yes, I think that when it comes to instances such as the bombing of civilian targets, we should be looking at whether or not that targeting is in the knowledge that those are wholly innocent civilian targets”, Mr Johnson said in an interview on BBC Television’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.
Al-Moallem accused the “moderate armed opposition” of committing crimes and massacres against Syrians “that are no less barbaric” than those of the Islamic State extremist group and al-Qaida.
But on the ground, the army was pushed back from the strategic Handarat camp north of Aleppo city that they captured on Saturday, the Observatory said.
Advertisement
Residents of eastern Aleppo enjoyed seven days of relative calm while the ceasefire brokered by John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, came into force. Right, destruction after USA airstrike in Kfredrian, Idlib province, Syria, Sept. 23, 2014.
