Speaking about Aleppo, where rebel-held areas have been intermittently under siege for months, he said, “If there’s really a siege around the city of Aleppo, people would be dead by now”.
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Assad dismissed the US account, saying the attack targeted a “huge” area for more than an hour.
Dozens of people have been reported killed in eastern Aleppo since the army announced the new offensive late on Thursday, burying any remaining hope for reviving a ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russian Federation.
“Those convoys were in the area of the militants, the area under the control of the terrorists”, he said.
“The drivers are sleeping at the border and they have done so now for a week, so please, President Assad, do your bit to enable us to get to eastern Aleppo and also the other besieged areas”, he said, appealing directly to Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad.
The strike late Monday hit a warehouse as aid workers unloaded cargo, triggering huge explosions.
“The non-stop strikes last night were so violent I can’t even describe them”, said Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, spokesman for a prominent Syrian group of emergency responders known as the White Helmets.
“It wasn’t an accident by one airplane”. Assad said the US lacked “the will” to join forces with Russian Federation in fighting extremists and rejected Washington’s claim that airstrikes last week on Syrian troops were accidental.
Asked by reporters at the United Nations whether the truce could be reinstated, Lavrov simply said: “You should ask the Americans”.
The complete siege is more recent. But officials said Wednesday the US has gathered enough intelligence to say that it was Russian Federation, not Syria, that launched the airstrike.
A man runs with a stretcher at a damaged site after air strikes on the opposition-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria September 21, 2016.
Assad, now in his 16th year in office after inheriting power from his father, said he has no idea when the war will end.
But the atmosphere between the two great powers has grown frosty following a USA airstrike last weekend that killed scores of Syrian government troops – attributed by the United States to a mistake – and Monday’s attack on a Syrian Red Crescent aid convoy, which left at least 20 dead.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian regime or mention on regime-run media of Thursday’s bombardment. Heavy fighting flared up early Thursday on the outskirts of Aleppo. However, no deliveries have taken place so far. “We are not able”, he said, “to resolve this conflict without Russian Federation”.
The text leaked by AP represents part of the ceasefire agreement signed between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his USA counterpart, John Kerry, on September 9 in Geneva. The source said the army aimed to avoid harming civilians and to allow them to “flee from the terrorists”. We’re evaluating some mutual ideas in a constructive way, ‘ Kerry said of his talks on Friday with Russia’s top diplomat. “The United States continues to believe there is a way forward that, although rocky, hard and uncertain, can provide the most viable path out of the carnage”, he said.
The main Syrian opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee, welcomed Kerry’s proposal “for the grounding of Syrian air forces, which are the leading killers of Syrian civilians”. And when pressed for his own conclusion, Dunford said he believed Russian Federation launched the airstrike.
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Assad said the United States lacked the will to work with Russian Federation against extremists in Syria. “That is a certainty”. They told the committee the USA should not discontinue flying aircraft over Syria. Both Russia and the United States agreed to use their influence on the western-backed rebels and the Syrian government to stick to the truce.
