Save Aleppo

The resolve shown by the GCC at the recent summit continues to manifest itself on the world platform. The reaction to the incessant bombardment of civilian facilities including hospitals in Aleppo has been immediate and powerful.
The UAE has expressed deep concern as the strikes continue for the tenth day and Qatar has called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League to put pressure on the Assad regime to halt the killing spree.
But it is Saudi Arabia that has now indicated the need for the international community to wake up to the reality of the brutal Syrian regime and collectively corral Moscow into using its influence to spike the guns. Riyadh has gone on record as calling these attacks criminal and an indictment of the Assad government in ignoring the safety of its own people. This statement underscores the seriousness of the situation.
The death of civilians on a daily basis under the guise of attacking rebel strongholds has become the norm and not enough is being done to bring it to a halt. In fact in these past few days the violence has escalated and set off another wave of refugees with the multiple strikes making the rubble dance.
With traumatized young children and weeping widows and tired, old men the Syrian landscape is bleak and it is now a test for the UN to get involved in bring strife under control. There was a slender spiral of hope that the truce begun on Feb. 27 would lead to a more durable cease-fire but these last series of airstrikes have placed the whole process into jeopardy.
Aleppo, which was left out of the equation in the negotiations between the Assad regime and the rebel moderates whose common purpose was to fight the Daesh, has become a fresh flashpoint and practically brought the peace process to a halt. In this divided city nearly 300,000 people have lost their lives and countless displaced.
Saudi Arabia has shown immense restraint, even held back in the hope that peace would have a chance but now the effort has to be a global one and when the major players meet again under the aegis of the UN on May 10 in Geneva it cannot be against the echo of bombs and missiles.
You cannot talk peace from Damascus when you are engaged in bombing hospitals and other civilian installations indiscriminately and with little concern for the lives of your countrymen.
It is vital that Moscow now read the writing on the wall and rein in Assad from initiating death through the day.