John Kerry seeks to extend truce to Syria’s Aleppo

Fresh airstrikes pummelled the Syrian city of Aleppo on Monday as US secretary of state John Kerry made a desperate bid to salvage a two-month ceasefire in the war-torn country.

Mr Kerry said they were closer to extending a Syrian truce to Aleppo, the divided nort-hern city where a sharp escalation of violence in recent weeks has torpedoed peace talks in tatters.

“We’re getting closer to a place of understanding, but we have some work to do, and that’s why we’re here,” Mr Kerry said at the start of the meeting with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir.

The top US diplomat gave some of his most downbeat comments yet after meeting the UN peace envoy on Syria, saying the conflict was “in many ways out of control and deeply disturbing to everybody in the world, I hope.”

“The attack on this hospit-al is unconscionable,” he said, accusing President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of deliberately targeting three clinics and a major hospital last week. “And it has to stop.”

Mr Kerry met UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura and the Saudi foreign minister in Geneva, but the absence of Russia cast a pall over the proceedings. Washington and Moscow are the joint sponsors of the Syrian peace process, and Mr de Mistura has made it clear that he sees little hope of progress without their agreement. Mr Kerry said he would call Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov later on Monday to press for the ceasefire to be restored.

Mr de Mistura was due to fly to Moscow for talks with Mr Lavrov on Tuesday. The talks will be held amid accusations by the United States and other supporters of the Syrian opposition that Russia has violated international agreements to back peace in the war-torn country. While agreeing in theory to support a ceasefire, Russia has done little to rein in Mr Assad’s forces around Aleppo, whi-ch were in action again early Monday. More than a week of fighting in and aro-und Syria’s second city has killed hundreds of civilians, and fresh airstrikes hit rebel-held eastern Aleppo in the early hours.

“What is happening in Aleppo is an outrage. It’s a violation of all humanitarian laws. It’s a crime,” said Mr al-Jubeir as he met Mr Kerry. “It’s a violation of all the understandings that were reached,” he added, accusing Mr Assad and the Russians of violating international agreements to back peace.

Despite the early-morning raids, there was a relative lull in the fighting later Monday, allowing some residents to venture out into the streets, with some even opening up shops.

Mr Kerry said Washington would press moderate rebels to separate themselves from the Al-Nusra Front’s jihadists in Aleppo. Russia and Mr Assad’s regime have used the presence of Al-Nusra, which was not party to a February 27 ceasefire deal, as an excuse to press their offensive. There is growing concern that the fighting will lead to a complete collapse of the landmark ceasefire agreed between Mr Assad’s regime and non-jihadist rebels.

Following his meeting wi-th Mr Kerry, the Saudi minister expressed scepticism that Mr Assad’s regime was in any way serious about the truce, and said Riyadh would continue giving weapons to the rebels.

Meanwhile, France called on Monday for a ministerial meeting of the international group supporting Syria to “restore the ceasefire.”

French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Paris was “totally mobili-sed” in pushing for the peace process to resume as quickly as possible. “For that the strikes on Aleppo must stop,” he said.