The U.N. said the Syrian government has obstructed the delivery of aid, a key component of the deal.
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“The cease-fire is not dead”, Kerry insisted.
“To allow Assad – who is a spoiler; he doesn’t want a ceasefire – to allow him to continue to go after opposition, pretending that they are Nusra, is in and of itself a huge challenge to this effort [to observe the ceasefire]”, Kerry said.
Spokesman Jens Laerke, of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the temporary suspension of the aid deliveries would hold pending a review of the security situation in Syria.
The State Department initially said it was ready to work with Russian Federation to strengthen terms of the agreement and expand deliveries of humanitarian aid and Mr Kirby called on Russian Federation, which is responsible for ensuring Syria’s compliance, to clarify the Syrian position.
Washington said it was working to extend the truce but called on Russian Federation to first clarify the Syrian army’s statement that it was over. The accord calls for a nationwide truce, but that excludes attacks on the Islamic State and a former al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. He claimed on Monday that the Syrian government forces have observed the truce unilaterally, despite the continuing rebel violations.
But a week after it began, desperate populations in besieged areas have yet to receive this aid, which has been held up on the Turkish border as humanitarian agencies await guarantees of safety from the warring parties. “The Russians made the agreement”.
De Mistura also said he was “profoundly outraged” by Monday’s attack on an aid convoy that killed some 20 civilians, describing it as a “game changer” in forcing a serious discussion on how to stop the violence. There were no independent reports of deaths of civilians on the government-side since the cease-fire came into effect. The road must become a demilitarized zone for aid to be transported along it, meaning both Syrian government troops and the rebels have to pull back. Damascus refers to all armed opposition groups as terrorists.
“The armed terrorist groups took advantage of the declared truce system and mobilised terrorists and weapons and regrouped to continue its attacks on civilian and military areas”.
The United States, Russia, the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition have all traded allegations of truce violations.
“The regime of Bashar Assad had no real intention to commit to the truce”.
Aid was delivered to the besieged town of Talbiseh in Homs province on Monday, the Red Cross said, for the first time since July.
However, Syria’s military command declared the US-Russian-brokered truce at an end. Syrian state media said there were 32 violations by rebels on Sunday alone.
“Only the Syrian government forces have observed the cessation of hostilities over the past six days since it came into effect… while militants attacks against the Syrian army are on the rise”, the ministry’s spokesman Maj.
The opposition reported 254 violations by government forces and their allies since the truce started on September 12 and a senior Syrian opposition official declared the cease-fire “clinically dead”.
The already shaky ceasefire deal was soured on Saturday when US-led coalition forces targeting Islamic State, also known as Isis, said they had accidentally struck regime forces, killing more than 60 soldiers.
An emergency UN Security Council meeting called by Moscow to discuss the attack saw an exchange between the United States and Russian Federation reminiscent of Cold War-era verbal jousting.
The Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment.
The American military said it may have unintentionally hit the group while carrying out operations against IS; the strike was halted when Russian Federation informed the USA of the apparent mistake.
Russia’s military has said that it was told by the Syrian army that at least 62 Syrian soldiers were killed in the Deir el-Zour air raid and more than 100 wounded. So we need to see what the Russians say; but the point, the important thing is the Russians need to control [Syrian President Bashar] Assad, who evidently is indiscriminately bombing including of humanitarian convoys.
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Isachenkov reported from Moscow.
