“The Syrian army’s advance towards Raqqa would re-establish the Syrian government’s foothold in the province for the first time since 2014 and could be aimed at pre-empting any move by Saudi Arabia to send ground forces to Syria to fight ISIS”, it adds.
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The telephone conversation was organized at the initiative of the USA side, AzerTag reports.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergi Lavrov has told Munich Security Conference attendants that it’s unlikely a ceasefire in Syria will be successfully implemented by next week.
He said that there were many questions before a ceasefire could happen, including defining who is a terrorist, adding that as far as the state is concerned, anyone who carried a weapon against it was a terrorist.
Airstrikes earlier this month killed three people and wounded at least six at a Doctors Without Borders-supported hospital in Daraa governorate, southern Syria, on February 5, the aid group said.
His comments and strong words from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry underscored deep U.S.-Russian disagreements over Syria.
“We must ask again, why wait a week for this urgently needed cessation of hostilities?” said Dalia al-Awqati, Mercy Corps director of programs for North Syria.
On Saturday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the Munich conference there was no evidence that Russia was bombing Syrian civilians.
The European Union’s senior diplomat said on Monday there was no Cold War climate between Moscow and the West as they agreed to a pause in the fighting in Syria, although Russia’s prime minister said tension was growing.
Russian bombers have been supporting a Syrian government offensive on Aleppo, and Moscow is Assad’s closest ally.
However, Dean noted that the main reason behind the deal is Russia’s military campaign in Syria, conducted upon a request by Damascus since September past year.
“They were trying to besiege (rebel-held parts) of the city of Aleppo but were forced out”, al-Halaby said via Skype.
The Syrian Kurdish PYD party rejected Turkish demands for withdrawal, while the Syrian government said Turkish shelling of northern Syria amounted to direct support for insurgent groups.
Turkish forces shelled Kurdish units in the town of Azaz in northern Aleppo governate on Saturday and Sunday, killing two fighters from the U.S.-backed Democratic Syria Force and wounding seven others, according to the London-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
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Norbert Roettgen, head of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament, said Russian Federation was determined to create “facts on the ground”, to bolster its negotiating position.
