Speaking to world leaders at the UN General Assembly in NY, he said: “The humanitarians delivering life-saving aid were heroes”.
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The convoy was carrying aid materials from the United Nations.
Ibrahim Alhaj said Syrian civilians will pay the price for the decision – and that the United Nations should have condemned the attacks on the convoy rather than suspending aid.
Earlier, US Colonel John Thomas said the deaths were not the result of coalition military action, which led him to conclude responsibility lay with Russian Federation or Syria’s military.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 20 that Russia’s military was “currently verifying information” about the strike, adding, “I don’t think it is possible or correct to make any unsubstantiated conclusions”.
The strike came hours after the Syrian government declared an end to a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russian Federation and the Unites States. Laerke called it “a very, very dark day. for humanitarians across the world”.
The Russians are denying this, of course, but perhaps the even more unusual angle is that White House officials have subsequently come forward to insist that the USA holds Russia responsible for what happened to the convoy, even if they didn’t actually do it.
The UN said at least 18 trucks in the 31-vehicle convoy were destroyed late yesterday en route to deliver humanitarian assistance to the hard-to-reach town of Orum al-Kubra.
The President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, said the attack constitutes a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law”.
The convoy was part of a routine interagency dispatch operated by the Syrian Red Crescent. USA officials, however, told CNN that only a Russian warplane could have struck the convoy. Laerke said the convoy had been carrying food and non-food aid for some 78,000 people. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said there was no sign of any bombing, based on drone footage and films from activists. After reviewing available videos, he said, “everything we can see.is a direct outcome of the fire on the cargo” that coincided with a ground offensive launched against government forces by militants.
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“The conditions are very simple”. It raises serious questions about whether or not this agreement moves forward.
