The Syrian military said on Monday that rebel groups, which it referred to as “terrorists”, had failed to commit to any provisions of the deal.
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The United Nations said it had received government approval to reach almost all the besieged and hard-to-reach areas where it sought to bring aid, but access to many areas was still constrained by fighting, insecurity and administrative delays.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that more than 60 Syrian troops were killed in four airstrikes near the city of Deir al-Zour, the Interfax news agency reported.
But Syria’s army said the seven-day truce period had ended. “While we have seen comments attributed to the Syrian military, our arrangement is with Russian Federation, which is responsible for the Syrian regime’s compliance, so we expect Russian Federation to clarify their position”.
The Syrian civil war is a freakish situation – one I don’t claim to entirely understand – but am I the only one who thinks it’s awfully odd that we’re letting the Russians know ahead of time when we’re going to launch a strike?
The seven-day ceasefire was breached several times with counter claims over who was responsible for the violence.
Speaking to CNN, Kerry also called for a “joint implementation center” to be created to help United States and Russian efforts to fight terrorists in Syria become more synchronized – something Moscow has been consistently calling for since the start of its airstrikes in Syria previous year.
The convoy from the United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) was en route to the hard-to-reach town of Orum al-Kubra, in Aleppo province, to deliver humanitarian assistance to 78,000 people, the UN said.
But forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were once again on the back foot near the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where they have been battling Islamic State group jihadists since a year ago.
Two senior US officials blamed the convoy attack on an airstrike by either Russian Federation or Syria and said it called into question the viability of the truce going forward.
Hours after the coalition strike, the Pentagon admitted US-led pilots may have hit Assad’s forces but said that they “believed they were striking a Daesh [IS] fighting position”.
The Homs governor said the plan had been postponed from Monday to Tuesday.
“Did pretty well last night; trucks are moving today to maybe eight locations or more”, Kerry said, according to The New York Times.
“Well, the Syrians didn’t make the deal”, Kerry told reporters in NY. On multiple key issues – including whether Assad should even remain as head of state – the US and Russian Federation don’t agree. Russian Federation has said the Syrian army had begun to withdraw from the road, but insurgent groups in Aleppo have said they have seen no such move and would not pull back from their own positions around the road until it did so.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the failure of Syrian rebels to adhere to the truce “threatens the cease-fire and U.S”.
Earlier, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed hope that the cease-fire could still hold even after the Syrian military’s announcement and took aim at Russian Federation for not doing enough to pressure Assad’s government to comply.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said US and Russian teams were meeting in Geneva to assess the situation, adding that the ceasefire process was continuing.
“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.
“As the terms of the ceasefire are not respected by militants, we consider observing it unilaterally by the Syrian government forces would be senseless”, Rudskoy added.
The US, Russia and other key players are set to gather there on Tuesday for talks aimed at ending the five-year conflict that has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced millions.
On Sunday, the Islamic State said it shot down a Syrian warplane near the city.
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American-led airstrikes killed dozens of Syrian troops at a Syrian military base on Saturday, Reuters reported.
