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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) attend a bilateral meeting in Rome, Italy December 2, 2016. © Gregorio Borgia / Reuters |
At a meeting in Rome, US Secretary of State John Kerry made
suggestions on Aleppo in line with those of Russian experts, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Russia is ready to
immediately send military officials and diplomats to Geneva to work out a
joint plan of action for Aleppo in line with US proposals, Lavrov said,
as quoted by Russian news agencies.
“Moscow is ready to immediately send our military experts and
diplomats to Geneva to work out joint actions with our US colleagues in
line with the [new] American proposals, which would ensure the
withdrawal of all militants without exception from eastern Aleppo, and
would provide unimpeded humanitarian supplies to the city’s residents
and ensure the establishment of normal life in eastern Aleppo,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.
Until Friday, the United States had been doing its best to try to “push provisions that would take the heat off Al-Nusra, which directs the militants in the unliberated parts of eastern Aleppo,” Lavrov noted, while adding, “however,
yesterday at our meeting in Rome, John Kerry passed on to us proposals
from Washington that are in line with the suggestions from Russia’s
experts.”
“It must not be a meeting for the sake of a meeting,” Lavrov added. “It is necessary to agree on a detailed timeline of steps.”
Moscow
hopes to resolve the situation in Aleppo by the end of the year,
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Wednesday. “We need to force these terrorists out the same way as they need to be forced out of Mosul and Raqqa. It’s a common task,” Bogdanov stressed, as quoted by RIA news agency.
The US, and especially the Obama administration, is looking for a way out in “political deniability,”
because the Syrian army is clearly winning in Aleppo, Catherine
Shakdam, director of programs at the Shafaqna Institute of Middle
Eastern studies, told RT.
“Clearly, the Russian stance in
regards to terror and ISIS [Islamic State, formerly ISIL] and the rise
of radicalism in Syria was right, and the assessment that Russia made
was right on the money,” she said.
According to Shakdam, the US is trying to show that it is on the “right side of history”.
“The
US is looking for the way out, to pretend to want peace, to want
democracy, and to be trying to fight for the greater good, which we know
it’s not,” she added.
Damascus’ military operation in
eastern Aleppo is in full swing, with scores of civilians flooding into
government-controlled parts of the city from rebel-held areas. On
Tuesday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor
Konashenkov called the advances made by the Syrian army this week “a radical breakthrough.”
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that over 40 percent of the
territory previously controlled by the terrorists and rebel militants in
eastern Aleppo has now been freed, liberating over 80,000 Syrians who
have been suffering from food shortages and a lack of adequate medical
care.
Terrorists
groups such as Al-Nusra Front have gone to great lengths to prevent
civilians from leaving via humanitarian corridors, shooting at them if
they attempt to flee and threatening those remaining with execution
should they try.
In early October, Washington said it was
suspending bilateral cooperation with Moscow, which was aimed at
sustaining a ceasefire in Syria agreed upon on September 9, after months
of negotiations. The US claimed that it had cut off the contacts
because Russia hadn’t delivered on a promise to make the Syrian army
suspend its military campaign and provide humanitarian access to
besieged areas.
The ceasefire suffered a major blow on September 17, when US-led
coalition planes struck Syrian military near the town of Deir ez-Zor,
killing 83 soldiers.
Several days later, a humanitarian aid convoy
on its way to Aleppo was attacked. Moscow has blamed the terrorists on
the ground for the incident, while Washington has accused the Syrian
government and Moscow.
Russia said cooperation between Moscow and
Washington was shattered by those in Washington seeking to settle the
Syrian crisis by force. Moscow has repeatedly condemned Washington for
failing to separate the so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition, who they support, from terrorists, as was stipulated in September’s ceasefire agreement.
READ MORE: Russia hopes Syria’s Aleppo situation can be resolved by end of 2016
Source: RT
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