Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency on Thursday that Moscow opposes “any attempts” by the U.S.-led coalition to deploy troops in Syria’s north without asking the Syrian government or the UN Security Council first.
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Russian Federation has proposed a March 1, 2016, ceasefire in Syria, U.S. officials said February 10, but Washington believes Moscow is giving itself and the Syrian government three weeks to try to crush moderate rebel groups.
“Forcing people to remain in a war zone, where they risk death and injury, is no solution to the challenge of protecting Syrians fleeing their country”, said Human Rights Watch. Peace talks are supposed to resume by February 25.
Committee members said they wanted Washington to do more. “Reaching Aleppo by the most direct path, they made strikes against objects in the city”.
“The parties agreed on the need to ensure speedy ceasefire and humanitarian access to all blocked settlements, and discussed the possibility of harmonizing the relevant arrangements in the context of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254”, said an online statement.
The administration has hinted it could work with a Syrian transition government toward that goal, though that may end up meaning cooperating with an administration in which Assad plays some role.
“These gains have been too slow to come and too limited”, U.S. Representative Ed Royce, the panel’s Republican chairman, said.
But British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said ending fighting could only succeed if Russian Federation stopped air strikes supporting Syrian government forces’ advance against the opposition.
As losses mount in Aleppo Province, in the face of a Syrian military offensive, they were expecting the USA to bail them out, and now that they’re not, they complain of being “abandoned”.
The defense ministry for Russian Federation, which has been lambasted for its own airstrikes in support of a Syrian government ground offensive around Aleppo, turned the tables Thursday with an accusation against the United States.
Assad launched an offensive against the country’s second largest city which held more than 3 million residents and forced almost half-a-million civilians, mostly children and woman to flee to Turkey.
The problem shows no sign of slowing, and last week the European Union thrashed out ways of financing a 3.0 billion euros deal with Turkey to help care for those already on its soil while stemming the flow of refugees.
On the other hand, Col. Steve Warren, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, said Wednesday: “The situation in and around Aleppo has become, in our view, increasingly dire…With the destruction of the two main hospitals in Aleppo by Russian and regime attacks, over 50,000 Syrians are now without any access to live-saving assistance”.
“Azaz district has seen some of the heaviest tolls of this brutal war, and yet again we are seeing healthcare under siege”, said Muskilda Zancada, the head of MSF’s Syria mission.
Advised by Western officials, notably France and Britain, and backed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey in particular, the disparate opposition groups representing political and armed factions in the talks are demanding concrete measures before returning to Geneva.
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“It seems as if we’re only half-heartedly going after Isis, and halfheartedly helping the (rebel) Free Syria Army and others on the ground”, said Eliot Engel of NY.
