Press. voanews.com.
U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and
other key partners in Switzerland Saturday in yet another effort to find a
diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria. The State Department says the talks
in Lausanne are part of a multilateral approach after the U.S. called off
direct talks with Moscow on a cease-fire and humanitarian relief.
Kerry also will
discuss Syria in a meeting with regional and international partners on Sunday
in London. The State Department was not ruling out the potential of a
Kerry-Lavrov “conversation” on the sidelines but said that does not mean the
suspension of bilateral U.S.-Russia engagement “is lifted.”
The West is
accusing Russia and its Syrian allies of war crimes for bombing hospitals and
United Nations relief convoys in and around Aleppo as they target Syrian rebels
looking to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
Loss of
credibility
White House
spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday the U.S. is no longer trying to reach an
agreement with Russia but is instead trying to use a "variety of diplomatic
channels" to reduce the violence inside Syria.
"And that's
necessarily going to include some Russian participation. But it is no longer in
the context of trying to broker this agreement that would... hold out the
prospect of U.S. military cooperation with Russia. That's something that Russia
has lost, frankly, lost the credibility to be able to try to agree to,"
Earnest said.
Hundreds of
thousands of civilians are trapped in the city of Aleppo, which has seemingly
become ground zero in Syria. Rebels control the east while the Syrian military
besieges the rest of the city. While targeting the opposition with bombs,
Syrian and Russian forces have been hitting civilians. Pictures of bleeding
children, some in so much shock that they cannot even cry, have sickened the
world.
Russia denies
attacking civilians. It says its only target are "terrorists," the
word Russia and Syria use when talking about the opposition.
‘Political
rhetoric’
Russian
President Vladimir Putin told France's TF1 television Wednesday that
allegations of Russian and Syrian war crimes in Aleppo are "political
rhetoric" and that the West does not consider what is really happening on
the ground. "We cannot allow terrorists to take advantage of civilians and
use them as human shields. We cannot allow them to blackmail the entire world
by taking hostages, killing prisoners by cutting their throats," Putin
said.
Russian
Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak said Tuesday that bilateral
relations between the two powers were “moving in the wrong direction.” Kislyak
blamed the U.S. for unilaterally “freezing” normal channels with Russia and
defended Russia’s bombings in Aleppo as being “on a fully legal basis” and by
the invitation of the Syrian government.
Meanwhile, Pope
Francis Wednesday called for an immediate cease-fire in Syria. Speaking at his
weekly general audience, the pope said a halt in fighting should be put in
place long enough for civilians, particularly children, to escape the bombs. Previous
international efforts to establish a cease-fire have quickly eroded in the five
years since the civil war erupted in Syria. Just last week, Russia blocked a
United Nations Security Council resolution proposed by France and Spain to end
the Aleppo bombing. Nike Ching
contributed to this report from the State Department.
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