The Assad regime’s continued crimes against civilians and its violation of the truce agreement have sparked widespread condemnation. The strongest of these condemnations were made in response to the deadly attacks regime forces carried out on Tuesday in rural Idlib, Aleppo and Rural Damascus, where over 100 civilians were killed in airstrikes by the Assad regime on popular markets and residential areas.
The US special envoy to Syria Michael Ratney said that these attacks against civilians came in the context of the vicious policy that the Assad regime has pursed in Syria. He condemned the indiscriminate and excessive use of force by the regime against civilians, adding that the Tuesday attacks represented a blatant breach of the truce.
Ratney also said that the US continues to urge Russia to ensure the regime’s compliance with the truce, stressing that attacks against civilians must stop immediately.
Britain’s envoy to Syria Gareth Bayley said that the Assad regime’s bombing of civilians is a violation of international law, calling for respecting the truce to make progress in negotiations.
France expressed dismay at the increasing breaches of the ceasefire and attacks on civilians by the Assad regime, stressing that these attacks clearly indicate the regime’s rejection of a political solution.
France also said that this indiscriminate attack on civilians is a clear violation of international humanitarian law, calling on the Assad regime to stop such attacks and engage in political transition in accordance with the Geneva Communiqué of 2012 and the UN Security Council resolution 2254.
President of the Syrian Coalition Anas al-Abdah on Wednesday said that negotiations in Geneva cannot be resumed while the Assad regime carries on with its crimes against civilians with impunity.
Abdah defended the High Negotiating Committee’s (HNC) decision to suspend participation in the Geneva negotiations, calling for opening an international investigation into the regime’s crimes and its repeated violations of the truce.
At a press conference held Wednesday in Istanbul, Abdah said that the Assad regime has effectively killed the truce by the brutal massacres it committed in Idlib, Aleppo and Rural Damascus on Tuesday.
“Regime forces have committed over 2,200 breaches of the truce since it was declared 53 days ago, all of which were documented and reported to the UN Security Council,” Abdah added. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
