WASHINGTON // Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday called for Russia and Syria to face a war crimes investigation for their attacks on Syrian civilians, further illustrating the downward spiral in relations between Washington and Moscow.
“Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals and medical facilities and women and children,” said Mr Kerry after news emerged of an overnight hit by Syrian forces on a hospital, killing 20 people and wounding 100 more.
Such acts “beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes,” said Mr Kerry. “They are beyond the accidental now, way beyond.” In his strongest criticism yet of Syria and its ally, Russia, he accused both of undertaking a targeted strategy to “terrorise civilians.”
Standing alongside him was the French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault Ayrault, who arrived in Washington directly from meeting Russian officials in Moscow to propose a new ceasefire deal to put before the UN security council. Calling for the grounding of warplanes over Aleppo and an end to the bombing, it was unclear how much the French deal differed in substance from the failed ceasefire brokered a month ago by Mr Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, but Moscow’s response to it left no room for doubt. Russia would use its veto to block the resolution.
“I cannot possibly see how we can let this resolution pass,” said Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin. He described the French resolution as “hastily put-together,” adding, “I believe this is not designed to make progress, but to cause a Russian veto.”
But the French insisted the resolution had “very strong support” within the 15-member council and that “there was no time to waste” in the face of the catastrophe in Aleppo. Foreign minister Mr Ayrault said Saturday’s vote on the resolution would be a “moment of truth for all the Security Council members.” There were two absolute demands: a ceasefire incorporating a no-fly zone over Aleppo and access for humanitarian aid.
“The question for all 15 Security Council members, but particularly Russia, is: ‘Do you, yes or no, want a ceasefire in Aleppo?’” he said.
As Mr Kerry and Mr Ayrault were speaking in Washington, Russia’s lower house of parliament ratified a new treaty with Syria that would allow Russia’s military to remain there indefinitely. The vote was unanimous, a show of support for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
Russia’s involvement in Syria, which began a year ago, has reversed the tide of the war and helped president Assad’s forces to make significant territorial gains.
An independent analysis conducted by the Reuters news agency, using publicly available data shows that since the September ceasefire collapsed, Russia has actually built up its forces in Syria, sending in troops, planes and advanced missile systems. The data points to a doubling of supply runs by air and sea compared to the period of almost two weeks preceding the truce.
In March, Russian president Vladimir Putin said he would pull out some of his country’s forces from Syria. Instead, Russia’s military deployment to Syria is bigger than ever. According to military analysts, the increased manpower probably includes specialists to put into operation a newly delivered S-300 surface-to-air missile system, which will improve Russia’s ability to control air space in Syria.
“The S-300 basically gives Russia the ability to declare a no-fly zone over Syria,” said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. “It also makes any US. attempt to do so impossible. Russia can just say: ‘We’re going to continue to fly and anything that tries to threaten our aircraft will be seen as hostile and destroyed’.”
If the September 9 agreement between the US and Russia had held, the two countries would have created a new alliance against terrorism in Syria. For that to happen, the fighting had to stop for seven days to permit aid to be delivered to desperate civilians in besieged areas. But the fighting didn’t stop then and hasn’t since.
* Associated Press