President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry talk a big game when it comes to calling for an end to the deadly civil war in Syria, but they appear unwilling to actually do anything about it, the Washington Post’s editorial board said late Tuesday evening.
Nearly 500,000 Syrians have been cut off from food assistance, and international humanitarian agencies are reporting multiple people have starved to death as a result of the conflict.
Kerry and the Obama administration have denounced the atrocities, but his words have proven useless, the board said.
“Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s handling of the Syrian crisis appears to be enabling [these] war crimes,” they wrote.
“While issuing strong statements of disapproval, neither the United States nor the United Nations has taken, proposed or even hinted at any action to force compliance by the regime of Bashar al-Assad or by Russia, which is doing much of the bombing,” they added.
As world leaders announced the Geneva talks open Monday, Russia and Assad continued undeterred to increase the pressure on rebel-held areas near Aleppo — and all this as opposition forces reported bombing attacks on civilians centers, including hospitals.
“The Russians and Syrians are using military action as leverage in the peace talks — or perhaps as a way of wrecking them. They show no interest in bargaining: The Syrian government delegation arrived in Geneva still insisting it would not negotiate with ‘terrorists‘ — which it defines as anyone bearing arms against the regime,” the Post wrote.
In response, the Obama administration has offered “nothing but rhetoric.”
Kerry said Tuesday, “We haven’t seen a catastrophe like this since World War II, and it’s unfolding before our eyes.”
“People in Madaya [are] eating leaves and grass or animals of one kind or another that they manage to capture.” He declared: “The Syrian regime has a responsibility — in fact, all parties to the conflict have a duty to facilitate humanitarian access to Syrians in desperate need. And this has to happen not a week from now. . . . It ought to happen in the first days,” he added.
The Post was not impressed with his words.
“Or else what? On that, Mr. Kerry has had exactly nothing to say. Expect the sieges, the bombing, the starvation — and the statements — to continue,” they concluded.
