Kerry: Assad’s Actions Drawing Terrorists Into Syria

Secretary of State John Kerry said actions of Bashar al-Assad are drawing terrorists to Syria and that the U.S. hopes Russian efforts to broker Syrian peace talks can ease the situation. “We hope that the Russian efforts could be helpful; we hope that the UN efforts” can “have an effect,” Kerry said after a meeting with United Nations Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura today in Geneva. Kerry called on the Assad regime to “think about the consequences of their actions, which are attracting more and more terrorists to Syria, basically because of their efforts to remove Assad.” Meanwhile, the UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said that that “continued fighting in the country is a “disgrace” that has set the country back 40 years. “It is a true tragedy that people all over Syria continue to be living under constant fear of barrel bombs, mortar attacks, rockets, aerial bombing, car bombs, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings,” said Staffan de Mistura. “We are starting 2015 with the Syrian conflict being the largest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War.” He urged implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on humanitarian access, foreign fighters and terrorist groups and he urged support for the proposal of a freeze to heavy fighting in Aleppo “because it is a symbolic microcosm of all of Syria, because it has the highest number of displaced people, because it has seen two years of suffering.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Al Arabiya)