London: The US and France accused President Bashar Al Assad’s regime of undermining talks to end Syria’s civil war, which were suspended hours before donors vowed on Thursday to boost aid efforts for the conflict-torn country.
French French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accused Damascus and Russia of “torpedoing the peace efforts” in Geneva by launching the offensive, and said world powers would hold “in-depth consultations” on their actions at the conference in the British capital. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister also blamed the failure on the Syrian regime, saying they had refused to cooperate with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura. Adel Al Jubeir also told a news conference in Riyadh that intensified Russian military operations in Syria were aimed at provoking the Syrian opposition.
The UN paused the fruitless peace negotiations on Wednesday as the Syrian government said it had cut a key supply route to Syria’s second city from the Turkish border with the help of Russian air strikes.
The peace talks had been tipped as the most important push so far to end Syria’s bloody five-year conflict, which has killed more than 260,000 people and forced half the country’s people from their homes.
UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura said discussions would resume on February 25, insisting this was “not the end or the failure of the talks” and calling on all players to work harder to make them a success.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Syrian government’s push to grab territory just as negotiations were meant to be getting underway proved the regime was not serious about the talks.
“The continued assault by Syrian regime forces - enabled by Russian air strikes - against opposition-held areas... have clearly signalled the intention to seek a military solution rather than enable a political one,” he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kerry agreed in phone talks Thursday to do everything possible to make the break in Syrian peace talks “as short as possible.”
Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said talks were pointless. “Russia continues to kill people in Syria. Could there be such a peace gathering? Could there be such peace talks?” Erdogan said in a speech in Peru. “In an environment where children are still being killed, such attempts do not have any function apart from making things easier for the tyrant,” he said. A senior UN official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that de Mistura called a halt to the talks after Russia increased air strikes to help the government of Al Assad, undermining the negotiating process.
