Kerry looking for deal to mend Syrian truce
‘ Several proposals’ on table, he says
GENEVA — U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said “several proposals” aimed at finding a way to restore at least a partial truce in Syria are being discussed, even as attacks continued in the city of Aleppo.
Kerry met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al- Jubeir and with the United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. Kerry said progress was being made toward an understanding on how to reduce the violence in Aleppo but that more work was needed.
“There are several proposals that are now going back to key players to sign off,” Kerry said after meeting with de Mistura. “We are hopeful but we are not there yet … we are going to work very hard in the next 24 hours, 48 hours to get there.”
“I don’t want to make any promises that can’t be kept,” he said.
He did not say what the proposals were, adding that he would call Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later Monday and that de Mistura was headed to Moscow today for talks.
Russia and the United States play important, but opposing, roles in Syria. Moscow last year sent in warplanes to help the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Washington and its regional partners, including Saudi Arabia, support some rebel factions seeking Assad’s ouster.
Kerry was vague on how the new plans would work or be enforced, saying only that Washington and Moscow had agreed to significantly increase the number of personnel monitoring the ceasefire that took effect Feb. 27.
He said they were working “intensely” to ensure that the task force does “a better job, with a better ability to enforce” the cease- fire.
De Mistura, who spoke at Kerry’s side after their meeting, said: “We are preparing the mechanism, but the mechanism needs a political will. Otherwise, we will have only a mechanism. But that actually [ is] being started today, preparing for a much better mechanism for monitoring and controlling a new cease- fire, but we need political will.”
Kerry said he was particularly disturbed about air raids on a hospital and three health clinics in Aleppo, for which he blamed Assad’s government.
“The regime has clearly indicated the willingness, over a period of time now, to attack first responders, to attack health care workers and rescue workers,” Kerry said. “And the attack on this hospital is unconscionable, under any standard anywhere. It has to stop.” He added that “both sides — the opposition and the regime — have contributed to this chaos.”
The cease- fire was designed to provide space for the opposition and government to hold political talks leading to a U. N.- backed transitional government in Syria, a new constitution and elections within 18 months.
As the Aleppo attacks intensified last month, the opposition suspended its participation in the talks. There was no point in setting a date for resumption, de Mistura said, until the violence ends.
Kerry said there could be no “legitimate political talks” until both parties carried out the agreement — a full cessation of hostilities throughout the country and the nationwide delivery of humanitarian aid. “And yet one party is blatantly violating that agreement,” he said, referring to the Syrian government.
Just as the United States and its allies must “keep our part of the bargain” by ensuring the opposition’s compliance, Kerry said, “It is incumbent on Russia and Iran … to make sure that the regime is living up to its part of this agreement.”
Speaking later to staff members at the U. S. mission in Geneva, Kerry said he hoped that an agreement about Aleppo could be announced within the next few days.
‘ HARD LINES’ IN ALEPPO
For Aleppo, the U. S. is considering drawing up with the Russians a detailed map that would lay out “safe zones.” Civilians and members of moderate opposition groups covered by the truce could find shelter from persistent attacks by Assad’s military, which claims to be targeting terrorists. One U. S. official said “hard lines” would delineate specific areas and neighborhoods. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
That plan, its proponents hope, would also isolate militias loyal to the Nusra Front, al- Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, which is not covered by the cease- fire. The Syrian government and Russia have used the overlap of the Nusra Front and rebel forces in some areas to justify the renewed bombing.
It was not immediately clear whether Russia would accept such a plan or if Moscow could persuade the Assad government to respect the prospective zones. Some U. S. officials are skeptical of the chances for success but say it is worth a try to at least reduce the violence.
U. S. officials also said the safe zones will not be “no- fly zones.” However, details have not yet been agreed to and the issues were to be discussed by Kerry and Lavrov on Monday, as well as by Lavrov and de Mistura in Moscow.
Even if hard lines were drawn on a map, and civilians and insurgents not affiliated with the Nusra Front were encouraged to go there, the plan would face major practical problems, given the difficulty of moving safely within the city.
Al- Jubeir, whose government has supported some suspected Islamist groups and others in Syria, expressed doubt that Assad would comply with any plan that would stop airstrikes.
“The regime will not accept safe zones,” al- Jubeir said. He accused Assad of conducting “ethnic cleansing” in areas currently outside government control, including Aleppo.
Earlier, al- Jubeir called the situation in Aleppo an “outrage” and a criminal violation of humanitarian law. He said Assad would be held accountable for the attacks and would be removed from power either through a political process or by force.
“There is only one side that is flying airplanes, and that is Bashar al- Assad and his allies, so they are responsible for the massacre of women, children, and the elderly,” he said. “They are responsible for the murder of doctors and medical personnel, and this situation, any way you slice it, will not stand. The world is not going to allow them to get away with this.”
Kerry’s meetings in Geneva came as Syria’s state news agency said the military has extended its ceasefire around Damascus and opposition strongholds in eastern suburbs for another 48 hours. The cessation of hostilities was declared Friday around the capital and the coastal Latakia region, after two weeks of escalating violence around the country. Kerry said he hoped the truce in those areas would be extended further.
But it excludes Aleppo. More than 250 people have died in shelling and airstrikes in the northern city over recent days, according to the Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
About two- thirds of those deaths have been on the rebelheld side of town, which is being pummeled by airstrikes and by bombs dropped from helicopters, including on the hospital.
But both sides have demonstrated a disregard for civilian life, with rebels firing mortar shells and missiles last week toward most of the government- held neighborhoods in Aleppo, in one of their worst barrages in recent months.
Russia’s Tass news agency, meanwhile, quoted Russian Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko, head of the Russian coordination center in Syria, as saying that talks are continuing about a cease- fire for Aleppo.