The Obama administration’s State Department said Tuesday it wasn’t aware of the effort between Russia and Turkey, a NATO ally, to negotiate a safe passage for rebel fighters looking to leave Aleppo, which Syria has nearly recaptured.
Both Syria and Russia agreed to a cease-fire, but reports said Turkey was in talks with Russia to help let U.S.-backed rebel fighters leave the besieged city. But on Tuesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby indicated the U.S. didn’t know about those talks.
“I’m not aware we had any indications that there were bilateral discussions to reach this kind of an arrangement,” Kirby said. “I don’t know that there was any prior knowledge.”
While the fall of Aleppo to Syria is a defeat for the U.S., Kirby indicated that the U.S. for now is happy for any cessation of hostilities.
“It matters a lot less to us who or how a cease-fire is arranged or reached, and much more that one is arranged and reached,” he said.
At the same time, Kirby acknowledged the “dreadful images” being broadcast of dead citizens and children in Aleppo, and said of Bashar Assad’s victory, “nobody should be happy about that.”
While Syria was on the verge of a military victory in Syria, Kirby hewed to the administration’s line that there is no military solution in the country, and said the war would go on even after violence ends in Syria.
It was reported early Tuesday that U.S.-backed rebels agreed to a cease-fire in Aleppo, just as it became clear that Syria’s military was about to recapture the city.
The retaking of the city is a major victory for Syrian dictator Assad, and came just days after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., predicted that Syria and Russia would agree to a cease-fire once Syria retakes the city.
