“To adhere to the agreement it made, Russia’s targeting must change”, he said, referring to the worldwide deal forged on Friday, in which 17 countries agreed to seek a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria within a week.
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He spoke shortly after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the world had “slid into a new period of Cold War”. “Almost every day we are accused of making new terrible threats either against North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as a whole, against Europe or against the USA or other countries”. I sometimes wonder: “are we in 2016 or 1962?”
Another week of fighting would give Syria’s government and its Russian, Lebanese and Iranian allies time to press on with the encirclement of Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the war, which they are now on the verge of capturing.
In Syria, residents of the areas of northern Aleppo have born the brunt of the recent bombing campaign. “There have been too many recently, matched with opposite action on the ground from the Russians”, Issam Rayess, a spokesman for the rebels’ Southern Front coalition that fights near Damascus, told the Post’s Liz Sly. Many expressed dismay that the cease-fire would not come into effect for a week.
Top leaders from more than a dozen countries, including the United States and Russian Federation, on Friday announced a ceasefire agreement in Syria as well as a plan to deliver aid to the embattled nation, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday, according to CNN.
Russian Federation therefore believes its airstrikes in Aleppo are not included, nor are attacks against what Moscow calls terrorist targets across Syria. ISIS fighters in Raqqa, Syria.
Kerry said the cessation of hostilities, an intentionally more tentative phrasing than a full ceasefire would apply to all groups apart from “the terrorist organisations” of the militant Islamic State (IS) group and Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra.
“If they are implemented on the ground, I believe this would really save lives there, this would push for the success of the political process”, he said. “Not with what we have on the table at present”.
While Russia and Iran are providing military support to the Syrian government, Sunni states like Saudi Arabia – along with Western powers including the USA and Britain – are supporting opposition forces. Another week of fighting could bring the Syrian troops closer to that goal. Not a ceasefire, a “cessation of hostilities”, enough to allow humanitarian aid into a country torn apart by war, and potentially a first step towards a resolution.
“He’s deluded if he thinks that there’s a military solution to the conflict in Syria”, deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
The communiqué backed by major world powers also vowed to work toward getting humanitarian aid into hard-to-reach areas such as the city of Aleppo.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday he expected Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to send commandos to help recapture Raqqa.
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Some of these groups have received military training overseen by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
