“Not for one day or two, but for as long as possible so that everyone sees that they are serious”.
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United Nations peace envoy Staffan de Mistura said the ISSG would not be meeting again if there was no chance of progress, but diplomats were careful to play down expectations. “If the Russians come back to us with constructive proposals we will listen”.
But he had a less rosy view of events on the ground. “What’s happening now is annihilation”, he said.
Earlier this week, tens of civilians left rebel-held areas upon the renewed calls of the Syrian authorities for people to abandon rebel-controlled areas in eastern Aleppo.
Sources inside the city told Middle East Eye that there had been over 20 separate air strikes, launched by warplanes and helicopters, on Friday morning.
Since midnight on Friday there have reportedly been at least 100 separate air strikes in 15 different rebel-held areas of the city.
The UN has now delivered medical supplies to the rebel-held suburb of Moadamiya in the capital and hopes to travel to Aleppo and other parts of Syria in the near future.
Aleppo, Syria’s second city and former economic capital, has been divided since 2012 with western districts controlled by the regime and the east in rebel hands.
The conflict in Syria has cost more than 300,000 lives since 2011, during which time more than half the population was uprooted from their homes.
The offensive by aircraft from the Syrian government, Russia, or both, followed a plea by Kerry to halt flights in order to allow the delivery of aid and preserve the cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington on September 9. The week-long agreement ended this Monday, when the Syrian military called an end to the truce, saying it has been repeatedly violated.
But even as Mr Kerry vowed to press on with all efforts to find a peaceful solution to the war between Syrian president Bashar Assad’s Russian-backed government and US-backed rebels, he acknowledged the current strategy was not working.
Mr Kerry and others made the point repeatedly to Mr Lavrov that Russian Federation had to undertake new steps that went beyond previous agreements to salvage the process.
Kerry told the Council the only hope of reviving the ceasefire would be for Russian Federation to order Assad to ground his air force and stop hitting civilian targets.
The US has been railing at Russian Federation since the ceasefire collapsed, but were complaining almost as loudly even while the ceasefire was in effect and holding, and appeared angriest when Russian Federation criticized the US airstrikes in Deir Ezzor.
Other trucks are still waiting at the Turkish-Syrian border for approval for aid to areas in Aleppo. “The food will be expiring on Monday”, the head of the United Nations humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told reporters in Geneva.
McCain, Barack Obama’s 2008 opponent, said the “abject failure” of the president’s Syria policy is emblematic of the “devastating legacy” he leaves for America on the world stage.
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He called for the immediate grounding of planes and helicopters that have launched airstrikes, including a Russian one earlier this week that the USA says hit an aid convoy, killing 20 civilians.
