Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain mocked Secretary of State John Kerry’s threat to call off talks with the Russians over their attacks on Aleppo in Syria, sarcastically saying the foreign power will take immediate action in fear of missing out on discussions in five-star hotels as the people of Syria suffer.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “must be scared now” that the State Department has taken such action, the senators joked.
Goodbye Geneva & 5-star hotels- Kerry calls off talks w/ #Russia over slaughter in #Aleppo. Putin must be scared now https://t.co/y0oTHdYnLQ
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) September 28, 2016
“Finally, a real power move in American diplomacy. Secretary of State John ‘Not Delusional’ Kerry has made the one threat the Russians feared most — the suspension of U.S.-Russia bilateral talks about Syria,” the senators wrote Wednesday. “No more lakeside tete-a-tetes at five-star hotels in Geneva.”
The State Department issued a warning on Wednesday via a telephone call to the country’s foreign minister that it was willing to suspend U.S.-Russian bilateral engagement on Syria until the Russian and Syrian government’s joint attacks on civilian infrastructure in the embattled middle eastern country end.
“We can only imagine that having heard the news, Vladimir Putin has called off his bear hunt and is rushing back to the Kremlin to call off Russian airstrikes on hospitals, schools, and humanitarian aid convoys around Aleppo,” wrote the senators. “After all, butchering the Syrian people to save the Assad regime is an important Russian goal. But not if it comes at the unthinkable price of dialogue with Secretary Kerry.”
