Russia rejects U.S. call to resume Syria truce

U.N. warns of humanitarian disaster in Aleppo.

BEIRUT — The Russian government vowed Thursday to continue its operations in Syria, dismissing Secretary of State John Kerry’s threat to cut off talks if the bombardment of Aleppo continued.

“We have more than once suggested 48-hour pauses in order to ensure humanitarian access,” Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister of Russia, told reporters in Moscow. “But our American colleagues are totally fixated on demands of a seven-day pause for reasons that only they know.”

Kerry told his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Wednesday that the United States would scrap plans for joint military action against jihadi targets unless the Russian and Syrian militaries stopped bombing the rebel-held districts of Aleppo, once Syria’s largest city and its commercial center.

As many as 600 wounded people in the city cannot be treated adequately because of a shortage of drugs and medicines, the United Nations deputy special envoy for Syria, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, said in Geneva. “There are now no more than 35 doctors covering a population of at least 275,000,” he said.

Hundreds of people awaited medical evacuations, while there are food rations left for only one-quarter of the population in eastern Aleppo, he said.

“The bombing must stop, civilians must be protected and the cessation of hostilities must be restored,” Ramzy said.

The United Nations’ emergency relief coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, told the Security Council that Aleppo faces a “humanitarian catastrophe unlike any we have witnessed in Syria,” with at least 320 civilians killed in the last seven days alone. The government has intensified its blockade on aid throughout the country, he said.

Kerry wants to revive a Sept. 9 cease-fire deal that fell apart after an airstrike that the United States said was aimed at jihadis but that instead killed dozens of Syrian soldiers; an attack on a humanitarian aid convoy for which the United States blamed Russia, despite Kremlin denials; and the relentless bombardment of rebel territory in the city. Most of the rebels in Aleppo battling the government of President Bashar Assad are not connected to jihadi groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida.

Analysts say Russia and Syria may be targeting civilians in Aleppo to erode the rebels’ legitimacy by driving them into the hands of extremists. That would give Russia more leverage in diplomatic talks and persuade civilians to stop supporting the rebels.

Ryabkov suggested a 48-hour pause in fighting, an offer the Americans are likely to reject. They have said that seven days is the minimum needed for a meaningful cease-fire.