Geneva: Syria’s civil war is “in many ways out of control” US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Monday, vowing to work hard in the “coming hours” to salvage a tattered truce.
Speaking after talks with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, Kerry said he would call his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov later on Monday to press for the ceasefire to be restored.
But, in some of his most downbeat comments yet on the effort to end the deadly five-year-old conflict, Kerry warned that he did not want to promise success.
He said that “several proposals” are being discussed aimed at finding a way to restore at least a partial truce in Syria amid continuing attacks in Aleppo.
Kerry met on Monday with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir and with de Mistura. He said progress was being made toward an understanding on how to reduce the violence in Aleppo but that more work was needed.
“There are several proposals that are now going back to key players to sign off,” Kerry said after meeting de Mistura. We are hopeful but we are not there yet ... we are going to work very hard in the next 24 hours, 48 hours to get there.”
He said the US and Russia have agreed that there will be additional personnel stationed in Geneva around the clock to make sure there is more accountability and a better ability to enforce the cessation of hostilities on a day-to-day basis.
Earlier, Al Jubeir called the situation in Aleppo with continued air strikes an “outrage” and a criminal violation of humanitarian law. He said that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad would be held accountable for the attacks and would be removed from power either through a political process or by force.
“There is only one side that is flying airplanes, and that is Al Assad and his allies, so they are responsible for the massacre of women, children, and the elderly,” he said. “They are responsible for the murder of doctors and medical personnel, and this situation, any way you slice it, will not stand. The world is not going to allow them to get away with this.”
Kerry’s meetings in Geneva came as Syria’s state news agency said the military has extended its ceasefire around Damascus and opposition strongholds in the eastern suburbs for another 48 hours. It said the cessation of hostilities that was declared Friday around the capital and the coastal Latakia region, following two weeks of escalating violence around the country.
But it excludes Aleppo, where more than 250 people have died in shelling and air strikes in the northern city over the last nine days, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
For Aleppo, the US is considering drawing up with the Russians a detailed map that would lay out “safe zones.” Civilians and members of moderate opposition groups covered by the truce could find shelter from persistent attacks by Al Assad’s military, which claims to be targeting terrorists. One US official said “hard lines” would delineate specific areas and neighbourhoods.
It was not immediately clear whether Russia would accept such a plan.
Russia’s Tass news agency, meanwhile, quoted Russian Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko, head of the Russian coordination centre in Syria, as saying that talks are continuing about a ceasefire for Aleppo.
Syria’s Aleppo city was calm on Monday after raids overnight, an AFP correspondent said.
But relative quiet in the city’s rebel-held east on Monday morning allowed some residents to venture out into the streets, AFP’s correspondent there said, with some even opening up shops.
Heavy air strikes had hit the area hours earlier, he said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Several neighbourhoods, including the heavily populated Bustan Al Qasr district, were struck overnight. It was not clear if Syrian or Russian jets carried out the raids on the rebel-held area.
Rebel shelling of government-controlled western areas of Aleppo city late on Sunday killed three civilians, including a child, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman confirmed that quiet had returned to Aleppo city on Monday morning.
More than 270,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011 with protests demanding Al Assad’s ouster.
