UN slams Russia over Syria bombings
American ambassador calls killing of civilians ‘barbarism’ in speech
Western powers traded barbs with Russia during an acrimonious emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to halt intensive bombing of Aleppo, the center of opposition to the government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, without reaching agreement.
U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura said Sunday that nearly 2 million people in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and former commercial center, are without running water following an escalation in fighting over the past few days.
At least 231 civilians have been killed in violence in Aleppo and its outskirts since a truce collapsed this week, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring organization.
Western nations, including the ambassadors of France and the U.K., said the bombing of civilians in Aleppo was tantamount to a war crime.
“What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counterterrorism; it is barbarism,” said Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. “Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals, and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive,” she said.
Sunday’s gathering in New York was the third contentious security council meeting on Syria since Sept. 17. During a meeting on Sept. 21, Secretary of State John Kerry called on Russia and Syria to ground their aircraft, a demand which was rejected.
“A so-called military solution or victory in Syria is impossible, including in Aleppo,” de Mistura told Sunday’s meeting. “My appeal to this council today is the following: please develop a common course of action to enforce a cessation of hostilities in Syria.”