US, Russia spar over Syria at U.N.
Nations drop diplomatic niceties and argue over which side spoiled the cease-fire. 9A
UNITED NATIONS — 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 truce deal — made earlier this month— 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 civilwar.
“Supposedly we all want the same goal. I’ve heard that again and again,” an 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. Butwe 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 Thursday meeting 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.
Russia has denied U.S. claims that it was responsible.
“This is not a joke,” Kerry exclaimed, urging all to stop the “word games that duck responsibility or avoid the choices with respect to war and peace, life and death.”
Lavrov, whose country has helped the Syrian government shore up its position, was more direct in presenting a series of truce violations by U.S.-backed rebel groups near the northern city of Aleppo.
Andin a not-so-subtle jab at Washington, he called Syria’s conflict, as well as those in Iraq and Libya, the “direct consequence” of foreign military interventions and “political engineering.”
Larvov and Kerry’s speeches laid bare their divergent views of a war that has killed up to a half-million people, contributed to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II and allowed the Islamic State to emerge as a global terror threat.
“We are at a make-orbreak moment,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, opening the session.