US Secretary of State John Kerry accused Assad and Russia of selectively enforcing a nationwide “cessation of hostilities” agreement in Syria while a regime campaign to retake Aleppo continued unabated.
Speaking in Oslo, where he also met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif for talks on Syria and the Iran nuclear deal, Kerry said Assad’s forces had not abided by the truce for a single day in Aleppo, Reuters reported.
“Unless we get a better definition of how this cessation is going to work…we are not going to sit there while Assad continues to offensively assault Aleppo and while Russia continues to support in that effort,” Kerry told a news conference.
“The United States is not going to sit there and be used as an instrument that permits a so-called ceasefire to be in place while one principal party is trying to take advantage of it to the detriment of the entire process,” he added.
“It is very clear that the cessation of hostilities is frayed and at risk,” Kerry told delegates at the Oslo Forum near Oslo.
The opposition-held sector of Syria’s divided city of Aleppo has been cut off by an escalation of air and artillery strikes on the only road in, putting hundreds of thousands of people under effective siege, Gulf Times reported.
