Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have not hidden their view that there is little point in holding negotiations when the Russian air strikes and Syrian government advance continue.
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He said “hopefully if and when the situation (in Aleppo) is corrected there will be more optimism for a political settlement”.
And to get Russian Federation on board, it now won’t even say that Assad should be barred from running for re-election if and when a new Syrian constitution is drafted.
“We will approach this meeting in Munich with great hopes that this will be a telling moment”, U.S. secretary of state John Kerry said.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan bashed the Obama administration Wednesday, saying its policy towards Syria has resulted in nothing short of an orgy of violence. But some 15 million Syrians will flee to Europe and different countries all over the world.
Ahmet Davutoglu gave the figure during a news conference Wednesday with his Dutch counterpart in The Hague, Netherlands. The U.S. has said both, angering opposition groups and their supporters like the Turks and Saudis.
Lavrov and Kerry reiterated their opposition to any preconditions and ultimatums, based on requirements of the resolution. Apart from the slow, orderly progress of trucks and registered medical staff crossing into Syria, the metal gates remain shut, a symbol of Turkey’s refusal to open the border to the tens of thousands of refugees gathered on the other side.
The United Nations on Tuesday said that hundreds of thousands of civilians could be cut off from food if Syrian government forces encircle rebel-held parts of Aleppo, warning of a massive new exodus of refugees.
By taking in the refugees that have fled Aleppo, he said Turkey would be indirectly contributing to what he termed as an “ethnic cleansing”.
Davutoglu also accused the Syrian Kurdish PYD of attacking civilians in collaboration with Russian forces, and said it was guilty of war crimes. The overlap between groups has always been contentious, as the USA fears indirectly arming rebels that aren’t vetted.
“Is there a difference between the PKK and the PYD?” Erdogan said in his fiery address. “That’s why the region is drenched in blood”.
Yet Kerry underlined the USA dependency on Russian Federation.
The talks began briefly at the end of last month but were suspended by U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan di Mistura after only a few days, when the Russian offensive in Aleppo began, in order to stop the peace process from imploding.
“We did not ask, while hosting 2.6 million Syrians, and are not asking anyone while providing all protections and means as well as providing every kind of means for 60,000 Syrians who are now at our door”. But it has not let them in, prompting UNHCR on Tuesday to call on Turkey to admit them.
Land delivery has also been discussed, which diplomats said would need to be overseen by United Nations workers on the ground.
Emergency cases are brought to the Bab al-Salama hospital before being sent to Turkey, which has closed the border to refugees but is letting in the severely wounded.
An opposition activist group and a rebel say Kurdish fighters and their allies have captured a military air base in northern Syria.
“The Russian Armed Forces, together with their partners, have created a multilevel system of reconnaissance that provides for the accurate exposure of targets”.
Kurdish rebels in Syria’s Aleppo province have occupied two villages at the request of local Arabs seeking refuge from Russian and Syrian airstrikes, according to activists.
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The Turkish security forces said on Wednesday they had seized explosives and four suicide vests in the baggage of a group of suspects stopped at the border east of the Oncupinar crossing.
