State Department refuses to admit US failure in Syria

The State Department on Wednesday refused to say that U.S. policy and strategy has failed to bring peace to Syria, and instead argued that the failure is a result of policies pursued by Syria, Russia and Iran.

State Department spokesman John Kirby was pushed hard at Wednesday’s briefing about the years the U.S. spent pursuing a political resolution of the bloody civil war, only to see those efforts fail over and over again. Secretary of State John Kerry has been working for months to negotiate a cease-fire in Syria that would allow humanitarian aid to reach the rebels, but Russia and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad have declined to comply with those deals even when struck and persisted in bombarding the rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo.