“The secretary made clear that the United States will not establish the Joint Implementation Centre with Russian Federation unless and until the agreed terms for humanitarian access are met”, Kirby said, referrring to a deal to set up a joint committee to enable the USA and Russian Federation to coordinate attacks on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham armed groups.
Advertisement
Secretary of State John Kerry told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a telephone call that Moscow must persuade the Syrian government to get the aid moving or a joint facility to coordinate attacks on extremist groups and share intelligence will not be set up, the State Department said.
A ceasefire was declared in Syria’s five-year-old civil war on Monday two days after Kerry and Lavrov signed a deal in Geneva to pressure both sides to hold their fire.
The ceasefire is the result of an agreement between Russian Federation, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with air power, and the United States, which supports some rebel groups, and has cooled fighting since coming into effect on Monday.
If the truce, which began Monday, lasts seven days and humanitarian access is granted, Russian Federation and the USA are to work together to target militants including the Islamic State group (IS) and former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.
But as well as a reduction in violence the U.S. also demanded that supplies be allowed to reach areas under siege across the country and especially in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city.
The United States and Russian Federation said on Friday they wanted to extend the four-day-old ceasefire in Syria that they have co-sponsored, although the agreement looked increasingly shaky, undermined by increasing violence and a failure to deliver aid.
The Pentagon also said Friday that dozens of US Special Operations Forces have been deployed to Syria’s border with Turkey to fight IS, at Ankara’s request, in support of Turkey’s army and “vetted” Syrian rebels.
Syrian state television broadcast images appearing to show bulldozers clearing the main road into rebel held neighborhoods of Aleppo in preparation for the aid convoys.
Two children were among three civilians killed in air strikes Friday on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. USA – backed opposition fighters said they’re abiding by the truce.
The UN had hoped that 40 trucks of food – enough to feed 80,000 people for one month – could be delivered there as soon as possible.
The UN has described the truce as a “critical window of opportunity” to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo city, where around 250,000 civilians are under siege.
The trucks contain flour for more than 150,000 people and food rations for 35,000 people for a month, a United Nations spokesman said.
“The armed groups on the ground are still discussing what they should do about the cease-fire”, Gen. Salim Idris, former chief of the staff of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, told VOA. “There is nothing new in Aleppo”, Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based Fastaqim rebel group said. “We are as ready to go as we can possibly be.it’s highly frustrating – we know the world is watching”. That mission was approved by the USA president Barack Obama earlier this week.
“And that’s the direct responsibility of the Assad regime and their benefactors in Moscow”.
Advertisement
In a meeting with US security aides, US President Barack Obama expressed his concern that despite the truce, the Syrian government continues to block the flow of humanitarian aide.
