Syrian-Americans are blaming Russia for putting Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, at risk of falling into the hands of the Islamic State, and say the Obama administration isn’t doing nearly enough to stop it.
Russia has violated the cease-fire it recommitted to upholding just last week, according Omar Hossino, spokesman for the Syrian American Council. Hossino cited sources close to the ground, but the U.S. State Department has said several times that it doesn’t see Russia living up to the deal even yet, months after it was first reached.
Moscow has steadily bombed U.S.-backed rebels in northern Aleppo in support of President Bashar Assad since September, Hossino charged. Russia’s air campaign has weakened the rebels to the point that Islamic State has taken control of key areas in Aleppo’s northern suburbs, he said.
The State Department says it’s aware of reports of the terrorist group’s, advances but did not comment on Russia’s role in their recent success.
“We are aware of reports of ISIL advances to northern Syria where there are large numbers of displaced Syrians,” a State Department official said Friday. “We are closely monitoring the situation and remain in close contact with our partners providing assistance to the impacted ‎areas.”
Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council on Thursday that “Russia has a special responsibility to press the Assad regime to abide by the cessation of hostilities and end its bombardment and siege of innocent Syrian civilians,” but said nothing about Russia’s air campaign violating the agreement.
The Obama administration is giving Moscow a “free pass” on its violations, “which is strengthening ISIS,” Hossino charged. “Instead of confronting Russia on its daily airstrikes in flagrant violations of the cease-fire, Obama is emboldening” Russian President Vladimir Putin “by making him a legitimate part of the solution in Syria.”
Power underscored the importance of the U.S. cooperating with Russia to help end Syria’s five-year civil war.
“We don’t think the right answer is, ‘OK, let’s give up on a country that has significant influence over a regime that has proven itself impervious to international norms and has been acting as one of the most repressive actors on planet Earth over the last five years,” Power said on Thursday in response to a question about Russia’s sincerity in the effort.
“We think the answer is to continue to press Russia, and Iran for that matter, to use the influence that they have established, influence that is only expanded since Russia intervened militarily in the conflict, to ensure that Syria lives by the U.N. Security Council resolutions” regarding Syria, Power said.
Hossino said the administration should go further than that, and sanction Russia for its non-compliance, just as it did after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
“I think sanctions on SWIFT banking or other economic sanctions on Russia for its flagrant violations of the cease-fire in Syria are in order to deter Russia from continuing its policy,” Hossino said, referring to the global system financial institutions use to communicate transactions with each other.
Power acknowledged that the cease-fire is not being upheld in Aleppo.
“But we also need the days of silence to be applied to Aleppo and to Latakia; and that is agreement that we have not yet secured,” Power said. “I say this, on the heels of my earlier point, which is that we shouldn’t need these piecemeal days of silence for different communities in Syria because the cessation of hostilities applies across the country.”
