The United States and Russia abandoned diplomatic niceties Wednesday in a fractious public debate over Syria, blaming each other for spoiling the country’s cease-fire and offering only temporary patches to stem the bloodshed. Secretary of State John Kerry called for all warplanes to halt flights over aid routes, while Russia’s chief diplomat spoke of a possible three-day pause in fighting.
In a U.N. Security Council session originally envisioned to enshrine Syria’s Sept. 9 truce, world powers rued the possibility of a darker phase in the conflict amid increased attacks on humanitarian workers. The council’s nations all sought to revive the U.S.-Russian cease-fire deal, but once again illustrated why they’ve been unable for more than five years to stop Syria’s civil war.
“Supposedly we all want the same goal. I’ve heard that again and again,” a visibly angry Kerry told the council. “Everybody sits there and says we want a united Syria, secular, respecting the rights of all people, in which the people of Syria can choose their leadership. But we are proving woefully inadequate in our ability to be able to get to the table and have that conversation and make it happen.”
While the U.S. and Russia have previously butted heads over several proposed resolutions critical of the Syrian government, Wednesday’s agenda didn’t even include a suggested course of action. Instead, the two-hour discussion served as a warm-up act for a meeting today, blocks away in New York, that will include Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and their counterparts from more than a dozen European and Arab countries.
Kerry blamed Russia, lambasting what he portrayed as a cynical response to an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy this week that killed 20 civilians and raised “profound doubt” about Russia and Syria’s willingness to abide by the cease-fire. The U.S. believes with very high degree of confidence that a Russian-piloted aircraft carried out the strike, said a senior American official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
Russia has denied U.S. claims that it was responsible, but Kerry focused on its shifting explanation of what might have happened.
First, Kerry said, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary described the attack as a “necessary response” to an alleged offensive by al-Qaida-linked militants elsewhere in the country. Then, a Russian ambassador said forces were targeting another area.
Russia’s Defense Ministry followed by saying the aid convoy was accompanied by militants in a pickup truck with a mortar, Kerry said, adding that no such evidence exists. Then, the ministry denied any Russian or Syrian involvement as its spokesman suggested, in Kerry’s words, that “the food and the medicine just spontaneously combusted.”