BERLIN/GENEVA: France’s foreign minister on Wednesday said President Bashar Assad’s government bears full responsibility for the violence in Syria’s Aleppo and everything must be done to restore a cease-fire.
Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was in Berlin for meetings with his German counterpart, the UN envoy for Syria and a Syrian opposition leader, says “strong actions” will be needed to revive peace negotiations.
He added that “those who can exert pressure on Bashar Assad’s regime must do it and do it quickly.”
In Geneva, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland accused Syria’s government of refusing UN appeals to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of people including many in Aleppo.
“We seem to be having new possible besieged areas on our watch, we are having hundreds of relief workers unable to move in Aleppo,” he told reporters after a weekly humanitarian meeting of nations backing the Syria peace process.
“It is a disgrace to see while the population of Aleppo is bleeding their options to flee have never been more difficult than now,” he added.
Violence in Syria’s biggest city has been escalating for nearly two weeks despite intense diplomatic efforts to revive the limited cease-fire that began in late February.
Ayrault said it is “a terrible drama ... in which the regime in Damascus bears the entire responsibility for what is happening — the threatening of the cease-fire.”
The German and French foreign ministers are meeting the UN envoy for Syria for talks aimed at expanding a limited cease-fire and getting the stalled peace process back on track.
Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier invited French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault and the UN’s Staffan de Mistura to a meeting Wednesday at a government guest house in Berlin. Steinmeier also met Riad Hijab — the head of the Higher Negotiations Committee, the Syrian opposition coalition.
The meetings are part of a flurry of diplomacy as officials scramble to restore a limited US and Russian-brokered cease-fire that began in late February.
Steinmeier says it’s important, “based on the realization that there are no military solutions to this conflict, to find a way back to Geneva to the political negotiations.”
Russia pulls out planes
The Russian military says it has withdrawn about 30 aircraft from its base in Syria, including all of the Su-25 ground attack planes stationed there.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov gave no details Wednesday about how many aircraft remained, saying only that it was precisely the number necessary for fighting the Daesh group and the Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Nusra Front.
President Vladimir Putin in March ordered the withdrawal of most of Russia’s forces from Syria, without specifying how many aircraft would be pulled out or how many would remain.
Russia had deployed more than 50 jets and helicopters to its Hemeimeem air base on Syria’s coast. The air campaign, which began Sept. 30, allowed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army to win back some key ground.
Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was in Berlin for meetings with his German counterpart, the UN envoy for Syria and a Syrian opposition leader, says “strong actions” will be needed to revive peace negotiations.
He added that “those who can exert pressure on Bashar Assad’s regime must do it and do it quickly.”
In Geneva, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland accused Syria’s government of refusing UN appeals to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of people including many in Aleppo.
“We seem to be having new possible besieged areas on our watch, we are having hundreds of relief workers unable to move in Aleppo,” he told reporters after a weekly humanitarian meeting of nations backing the Syria peace process.
“It is a disgrace to see while the population of Aleppo is bleeding their options to flee have never been more difficult than now,” he added.
Violence in Syria’s biggest city has been escalating for nearly two weeks despite intense diplomatic efforts to revive the limited cease-fire that began in late February.
Ayrault said it is “a terrible drama ... in which the regime in Damascus bears the entire responsibility for what is happening — the threatening of the cease-fire.”
The German and French foreign ministers are meeting the UN envoy for Syria for talks aimed at expanding a limited cease-fire and getting the stalled peace process back on track.
Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier invited French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault and the UN’s Staffan de Mistura to a meeting Wednesday at a government guest house in Berlin. Steinmeier also met Riad Hijab — the head of the Higher Negotiations Committee, the Syrian opposition coalition.
The meetings are part of a flurry of diplomacy as officials scramble to restore a limited US and Russian-brokered cease-fire that began in late February.
Steinmeier says it’s important, “based on the realization that there are no military solutions to this conflict, to find a way back to Geneva to the political negotiations.”
Russia pulls out planes
The Russian military says it has withdrawn about 30 aircraft from its base in Syria, including all of the Su-25 ground attack planes stationed there.
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov gave no details Wednesday about how many aircraft remained, saying only that it was precisely the number necessary for fighting the Daesh group and the Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Nusra Front.
President Vladimir Putin in March ordered the withdrawal of most of Russia’s forces from Syria, without specifying how many aircraft would be pulled out or how many would remain.
Russia had deployed more than 50 jets and helicopters to its Hemeimeem air base on Syria’s coast. The air campaign, which began Sept. 30, allowed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army to win back some key ground.
