Share

Kerry takes aim at Russia over Ukraine and Syria

About 13.5 million people are in need, the United Nations says.

Advertisement

At the moment, only two groups – the Islamic State and the Nusra Front – are ineligible because they are identified as terrorist organizations by the UN.

De Mistura stressed that no conflict “can actually end abruptly with a cease-fire”. The Syrian government says it aims to seal the border to cut rebel supply routes from Turkey.

Egeland said the task force composed of envoys from the International Syria Support Group will reconvene Wednesday. He said Saturday “the picture is more grim; the developments since 2007 have been worse than anticipated”.

The Syrian government has said that any foreign forces in the country without its consent will be fought.

Amid doubts over the prospect of widespread adherence to the deal, ISSG representatives met in Geneva on Friday to discuss plans for mass aid distribution that would coincide with the pause in fighting.

“Humanitarian access to these most urgent areas will be a first step toward full, sustained, and unimpeded access throughout the country”, the joint communique added.

The indiscriminate campaign in the northern city is invoking comparisons between Aleppo 2016 and the four-year-old siege of Bosnian capital Sarajevo in 1990s.

Above all, he urged “meaningful action on the ground”.

Forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad warm themselves around a source of fire.

Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told the same Munich Security Conference in 2007 that the West’s building of a missile defense system risked restarting the Cold War, and that now “the picture is more grim; the developments since 2007 have been worse than anticipated”.

Adel al-Jubeir addressed the conference and said his country is working for political change in order to remove “a man who is the single most effective magnet for extremists and terrorists in the region”.

Lavrov said: “if we are moving closer to practical goals of (a) truce, then without cooperation between the military nothing will work out”.

The UN said it’s hopes to begin delivering aid to remote area of Syria today.

“To date, the vast majority, in our opinion, of Russia’s attacks have been against legitimate opposition groups and to adhere to the agreement it made, we think it is critical that Russia’s targeting change”, Kerry said. “It doesn’t feel like we’re going to get there”.

Five years of conflict have killed more than a quarter-million people, created Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War and allowed the Islamic State to carve out its own territory across parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Jordan’s King Abdullah is urging the global community to “act as one” diplomatically to stop the civil war in Syria.

The cessation of hostilities agreement falls short of a formal ceasefire, since it was not signed by the main warring parties – the opposition and government forces. “We are simply trying to protect our national interests”. “They give the factions longer reach”, he said.

Advertisement

The United Nations and Turkey are reporting a fresh exodus of tens of thousands of civilians from Syria, with appalling proportions of women and children amidst encirclement of Aleppo, even as global peace efforts, aimed at rescuing it from further bloodshed through political settlement, remain suspended. Some of the vetted groups have received military training overseen by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Russian FM pessimistic on Syria truce chances