Lavrov also said he had asked the United States to do more to ensure that aid can be delivered to besieged areas of Syria.
Advertisement
The UN had hoped that forty trucks of food – enough to feed 80,000 people for one month – could be delivered to besieged rebel-held eastern parts of Aleppo as soon as possible.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov says that Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations envoy for Syria, could call the talks between the Syrian government and the opposition later this month or in October.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry has said aid can only be delivered to Aleppo if it is coordinated through the government and United Nations – especially aid coming from Turkey.
In a video call from Castello Road, Russian Col. Sergei Kapitsyn said the rebels fired on government positions overnight, wounding two Syrian soldiers and prompting the Syrian army to move their weapons back to the road to prevent the rebels from advancing.
De Mistura noted that even the Russians were expressing frustrations with the Syrian government over its blockade.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said: “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”.
Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to have led to a respite in violence in the five-year civil war.
A tense cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington went into effect on Monday.
Warplanes strafed or bombed rebel-held areas in Maarat al-Numan, Saraqeb and Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, Teir Maalah, north of Homs, and Souha, east of Hama, overnight after other strikes earlier on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In recent days, images have emerged from Syria showing people taking advantage of the rare calm to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The impasse threatens to bring down the shaky ceasefire.
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 jihadists including the Islamic State group (IS) and former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front.
The United States accused Syria of blocking aid to besieged cities and warned it will not boost military cooperation with Russian Federation unless Damascus honours the truce agreement. “What really matters here is that the president of the United States supports this agreement, and our system of government works in such a way that everyone follows what the president says”.
The five-year Syrian civil war has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s population, drawing in global and regional powers, causing an worldwide refugee crisis and inspiring jihadist attacks around the world.
Over 2,000 people were killed in 40 days of fighting in Aleppo until the cease-fire went into effect Monday.
Advertisement
If the aid starts flowing and the cease-fire holds, the expectations are that such a climate would pave the way for the restart of Syria peace talks that collapsed earlier this year.
