The State Department on Thursday mocked Russia’s plans to bring peace to Syria as a “farce.”
Russia coordinated with Iran and Turkey to establish four regional cease-fires in Syria as part of a process that the Russians hoped would sideline any potential U.S. efforts to broker a political settlement leading to the end of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s reign. But violence has reached a fever pitch in Eastern Ghouta, a district outside of Damascus that was supposed to be covered by those agreements.
“So much for that de-escalation zone,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. “They have starved people there. They have prevented humanitarian aid from getting in. We have seen innocent civilians killed. We’ve seen barrel bombs. We’ve seen this devastation and destruction. That is certainly no de-escalation zone.”
More than 400 people have been killed and another 2,100 wounded by airstrikes and other attacks from pro-Assad forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Russian officials have defended the raids as a necessary effort to defeat jihadists in the suburbs, while accusing the United States of using terrorists to try to “overthrow the regime,” as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put it.
Attempts to pass a resolution at the United Nations that would establish a 30-day cease-fire have stalled over disagreements about whether it should be an absolute cease-fire or allow pro-Assad forces to attack groups they regard as terrorists.
“If our arguments are ignored once again, we have no other choice but to be reinforced in the view that the aim of the authors of this initiative is to once again shift the attention to Damascus, cover up terrorist groups,” Lavrov said Thursday, according to state-run media.
Several hospitals in the vicinity have been targeted for air strikes by pro-Assad forces, drawing comparisons to Russia’s attack on Aleppo in 2016. Russia has denied carrying out the airstrikes in Eastern Ghouta, however.
“My appeal to all those involved is for an immediate suspension of all war activities in Eastern Ghouta,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday, per Al Jazeera. “This is a human tragedy that is unfolding in front of our eyes, and I don’t think we can let things go on happening in this horrendous way.”
