The US State Department announced the termination of the dialogue with Russia on Syria, having blamed Russia for the aggravated situation in Aleppo.
The US State Department announced the termination of negotiations with Russia about the ways to stop violence in Syria, RBC reports. According to US officials, Russia failed to abide by obligations under the US-Russian Syria cease-fire agreement.
“The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the cessation of hostilities,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said. “This is not a decision that was taken lightly,” he added.
Moscow has expressed its regret about Washington’s decision to terminate the bilateral dialogue on Syria, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. She said that Washington failed to implement the key agreement with Moscow and then tried to shift the responsibility on others.
“It turns out that Washington has not fulfilled the key condition of the agreement to ease the humanitarian situation for Aleppo residents, and now, being apparently unable to comply with the agreements that they developed themselves, they are trying to pass the responsibility on to someone else,” said Zakharova, TASS reports. According to her, Washington’s inaction has given terrorists an opportunity to regroup forces, obtain weapons and mobilise their resources.
Russia has taken efforts to implement the agreements concluded between Moscow and Washington on September 9, said Zakharova. However, she added, “all came down to a simple question of what Jabhat en-Nusra is (a terrorist group banned in Russia), who is behind it and why Washington can not distinguish between terrorists and the so-called moderate opposition.”