The US permanent representative to the UN, Samantha Power, on Tuesday warned that the regime’s escalation of violence in Aleppo province threatened to derail the Geneva talks.
Samantha Power said the US was “very alarmed” at the regime’s announcement of a major offensive south of the city of Aleppo and that Russia needed to “get the regime back with the program.”
France’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said that the regime’s offensive in the Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta regions threatened the already fragile truce agreement and could lead to the collapse of intra-Syrian peace talks.
“France expresses its concern regarding the restart of the violence seen in the last few days,” spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters in a daily briefing. “It warns that the impact of the regime and its allies’ offensives around Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta are a threat to the cessation of hostilities,” he said.
Nadal added that the Assad regime and its backers would be “responsible for a new humanitarian crisis and the failure of intra-Syrian negotiations” that are due to resume on Wednesday.
The Syrian Coalition on Tuesday said that the Assad regime’s ongoing preparations for a large-scale offensive on Aleppo represent a blatant violation of the “cessation of hostilities” agreement. The Coalition said the agreement would become meaningless and without any value if the regime’s continued crimes were not deterred.
The Coalition pointed out that a regime that practices state terrorism will not be able to eradicate terror as it claims to have been doing, adding that reaching a real political solution is the only viable means to defeat terror.
The Coalition warned of the disastrous consequences of the crime the Assad regime is planning to commit in Aleppo, criticizing the inaction of the international community which has chosen to remain silent over the regime’s preparations to encircle the city.
“We call upon the international community to step up pressure on the regime and its allies at all levels in order to comply with efforts aimed at reaching a political solution in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”
The Coalition warned that “condemning this campaign and the questioning of its goals without taking any further action will be understood by the regime and its allies as a green light to carry on with their crimes.”
“By keeping silent over the regime’s ramping up of its forces around Aleppo, the international community risks appearing as indifferent and not showing the slightest consideration to the political solution or to the ‘cessation of hostilities’ agreement which cannot hold any further under such continued, widespread violations.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
