Russian Federation said Thursday it would consider extending a three-hour a day humanitarian ceasefire around Aleppo, but all sides of the conflict continued clashes on the ground.
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He added that “a unilaterally declared three-hour cease-fire per day isn’t enough to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe”.
“Any pause is good, anything that cuts the violence”, said Trudeau, adding “the United Nations has come out and they’ve said that the three hours are not enough” and Washington supports the United Nations on this.
Fighting has escalated in Aleppo in recent days, with rebels severing the government’s main route to the west of the city.
Capturing the whole city would be a major prize for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s five-year-old conflict.
The offer by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to coordinate with Russia on operations against IS followed a meeting between the Russian and Turkish leaders earlier this week in which they agreed to mend ties. Four people lost their lives and many were injured during the attack.
Meanwhile, there was no letup in the embattled northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where Turkey and Russian Federation are supporting opposing sides in the conflict and where residents and activists reported a chlorine gas attack late Wednesday.
In 2013, the BBC found strong evidence suggesting residents of Saraqeb had been subject to a chemical attack by government helicopters, something denied by the Syrian authorities.
But it made no mention of the “humanitarian windows” announced by Russian Federation.
Mahmoud Barakat, a 34-year old anesthetic technician, was one of the two hospital staffers who was killed.
But rebels and regime forces clashed in southern Aleppo, including during the period when the pause was meant to take hold, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Fifteen of the only remaining doctors in eastern Aleppo implored US President Barack Obama to protect civilians from atrocities. “We took a pledge to help those in need”. “Prove that you are the friend of Syrians”, it said.
“Unless a permanent lifeline to Aleppo is opened it will be only a matter of time until we are again surrounded by regime troops, hunger takes hold and hospitals’ supplies run completely dry”, they wrote. “Attacks on hospitals and clinics have continued unabated and that seriously jeopardizes the health and welfare of all citizens”, he said.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Thursday that reports of possible chemical weapons use in Syria “are of great concern”.
De Mistura said he could not verify the reports.
Russian Federation confirmed that six Tupolev warplanes carried out air strikes around Raqa, but said it had demolished “a chemical weapons factory in the city’s northwestern outskirts”.
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The ministry’s statement said the jihadists suffered “significant material damages” in the strikes and that “a large number of fighters have been killed”.
