US to Russia: ‘Put up or shut up’ on Syrian ceasefire

The Syrian government has approved access to seven besieged areas and United Nations convoys are expected to set off in days, the UN said on Tuesday after crisis talks in Damascus. Russian Federation must exert influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government to halt its ground offensives, Toner said.

De Mistura has been trying to secure aid deliveries to improve the chances of restarting peace talks before the end of February. But those efforts have been clouded by the intense fighting north of Aleppo, where various forces backed by regional and worldwide rivals are clashing over a crucial strip of land linking Syria’s largest city to the border with Turkey.

The region around Aleppo has been the target of a major offensive by Syrian government troops, backed by Russian warplanes, which has sent tens of thousands fleeing to the Turkish border. A Turkish official told reporters in Istanbul that “each time there is fire from Syria, we respond”.

A senior Turkish official said Tuesday that Turkey was in favour of a ground operation in Syria to end the fighting, but only in cooperation with its Western and Gulf allies.

But he ruled out the possibility of Turkey undertaking unilateral action or the prospect of a joint Saudi-Turkish venture without broader consensus in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

Jubeir said Saudi Arabia is prepared to contribute ground troops to the fight in Syria, but only as part of a US-led coalition.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah says both countries are driven by their “hatred” after the successive defeats suffered by rebels they support in Syria.

Rebel forces have also accused the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish fighting force, of merely serving regime interests by expelling them from strategic areas of Aleppo such as the town of Tal Rifaat and Minnigh air base. They are taking advantage of the chaos to advance and try to link the two enclaves they control to the east and west. They have advanced eastward from Afrin and from the west to the edge of Azaz, triggering alarm in Ankara, which responded with artillery on Kurdish positions.

Syria’s state news agency SANA and the Observatory said government forces took the villages of Ahras and Misqan in the northern province of Aleppo. Since the shelling began three days ago, six civilians have been killed, including a woman and a child, he added. In the short term, a Russian-backed Kurdish advance could cut supplies to the rebels that Turkey’s been backing for years, increasing the chance that Assad will recapture Aleppo and survive in power.

“If we were able to reach an agreement between anti- and pro-Assad forces on a kind of no-fly zone, in the sense of a sanctuary for the many refugees, then this would save many lives and aid the political process about Syria’s future”, Merkel continued.

Once in Marea, SDF forces would face off against IS.

Kurdish militants are carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Syria with Russia’s help, the deputy chairman of Turkey’s ruling party told Al-Jazeera.

He said that in Maarat al-Numan, in Idlib Governorate, two hospitals were attacked, including one supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres, which was reportedly hit by four missiles, allegedly killing nine people and injuring 30 others.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned airstrikes on at least four hospitals and a school Monday in northern Syria.

Peskov, in a conference call with journalists, said those who make such accusations should instead do as Moscow does and rely on the “primary source” – official announcements from the Syrian government. The projected truce agreed on Friday in Munich was to begin in a week, but there has been no sign it would happen.