U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry abandoned his bid to salvage a cease-fire aimed at easing Syria’s 5 1/2-year civil war, saying it was pointless to press ahead without a “major gesture” from Russian Federation to end the violence.
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Members of the Security Council meet to address the situation in Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016, at United Nations headquarters.
With Syria’s cease-fire in shambles, the United States and Russian Federation are preparing to butt heads once again over ways to revive it. Each has blamed the other for violations.
He told the U.N. Security Council that stopping the flights could restore trust in efforts to end the war and “give a chance for humanitarian assistance to flow unimpeded”.
But the deal collapsed Monday after the US inadvertently struck a Syrian regime camp killing 62 regime soldiers.
The diplomatic back-and-forth between the two countries has made efforts towards ending violence in the country increasingly hard, with two ceasefires already failing this year, and Damascus emboldened by Russia’s support and looking to seize a strategic victory in Aleppo. Are we supposed to sit at a table and have happy talk with a government that does these things? “I’ve heard that again and again”, Kerry told the council, according to the Associated Press. Russia, then, likely sees little reason to give in to U.S. demands since it isn’t going to placate them anyhow. “But we are proving woefully inadequate in making that happen”.
Had the truce held, Russian Federation and the United States were due to exchange information about targets in Syria.
The deal collapsed after an American coalition led air strike accidentally hit a Syrian army base near Isis territory, and an aid convoy near Aleppo was attacked, killing 20 volunteers and Syrian Arab Red Crescent workers.
Moscow, which backs Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s government, has denied responsibility for the attack. “The renewal of the cessation of hostilities, the resumption of aid deliveries, the isolation of Nusra [Front] and Daesh and the beginning of a negotiating path make possible the restoration of a united Syria”. That’s what they should accuse first: “the people or the militants, the terrorists who are responsible for the security of this convoy”, Assad said. Then, a Russian ambassador said forces were targeting another area.
“This (Kerry’s) plan won’t work”, it cited him as saying.
While the U.S. has blamed Russian fighter jets for that strike, the United Nations confirmed it hopes to also begin sending aid to Aleppo and other parts of Syria in the near future. His pleas crossed paths with another statement by Russia’s government, this time suggesting a USA coalition Predator drone was operating nearby when the convoy attack occurred.
Kerry said he would wait for Lavrov to tell him Friday if Russian Federation would suspend airstrikes for a significant period of time. The simple reality is that we can’t resolve a crisis if one side is unwilling to do what is necessary to avoid escalation.
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But he also offered one concrete suggestion to revive diplomatic hopes: to ground all aircraft in key areas, focused on protecting aid routes in northern Syria.
