UNITED NATIONS/BEIRUT: US secretary of state John Kerry demanded on Tuesday that Russia and the Syrian government immediately halt flights over Syrian battle zones, in what he called a last chance to salvage a collapsing ceasefire and find a way “out of the carnage”.
An impassioned Kerry faced off with Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN Security Council in New York, in an unusually heated televised showdown, saying the bombing of an aid convoy in Syria raised “profound doubt whether Russia and the Assad regime can or will live up to” ceasefire obligations.
On the ground, rebels battled government forces on major frontlines near Aleppo and Hama, and air strikes reportedly killed a dozen people including four medical workers.
He mocked what he described as absurd Russian explanations for an attack on an aid convoy on Monday that Washington says was carried out by Russian warplanes.