Tensions between Russian and US diplomats have spilled over at the United Nations Security Council after Russian officials demanded to know whether the United States intentionally supported Islamic State militants with air strikes that hit Syrian government troops.
Advertisement
Washington and Moscow reached an agreement in September that calls for a ceasefire, the delivery of aid and the joint targeting of Islamist rebels in Syria.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power tonight blasted Russia for calling an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in response to a U.S. -led coalition airstrike that mistakenly killed over 60 Syrian regime troops, and wounded 100 more, according to numbers provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian Federation has in turn accused Washington of failing to rein in the rebels, and on Saturday Putin asked why the United States has insisted on not releasing a written copy of the agreement. The news service notes that, if confirmed, the casualties would mark the first time the USA has directly struck Syrian government forces during the country’s long-running civil war.
Ms Power told reporters: “Even by Russia’s standards tonight’s stunt – a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding – is uniquely cynical and hypocritical”.
The US military said an airstrike may have struck Syrian soldiers, but the coalition thought it was hitting ISIS militants.
The warplanes entered the airspace of Syria from the Iraqi border, the spokesman said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said earlier Saturday he remained “positive” about the truce but accused rebels of “attempts to regroup”.
Putin said Washington apparently “has the desire to keep the capabilities to fight the lawful government of President Assad”, calling it a “very unsafe path”.
Saturday’s violence presents another threat to the stability of the cease-fire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov echoed Putin’s remarks during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
She noted that Russian Federation had never called an emergency consultation to condemn Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime “for some of the most systematic atrocities we have seen in a generation” – striking civilian targets, preventing humanitarian aid from reaching starving people, using chemical weapons or torturing tens of thousands of prisoners.
The Syrian government says insurgents have been firing on routes leading into the northern city of Aleppo, endangering United Nations efforts to deliver aid to besieged, rebel-held neighborhoods.
The U.N. has accused the Syrian government of obstructing aid to the besieged Aleppo.
Russian Federation is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and has been carrying out airstrikes on behalf of his forces since previous year.
Syria’s conflict has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced half the country’s population since March 2011.
Advertisement
Deir al-Zour province, where the strike took place, is far from the populated western region where the separate civil war that is the subject of the cease-fire is focused.
