PARIS, France (AFP) — France will host talks next week with the Saudi, Qatari, Turkish and UAE foreign ministers on the breakdown in the Syrian peace process, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday. Other top diplomats from “countries that think negotiations should resume at all costs” may also attend the Monday meeting, Le Foll said, without naming them. He was speaking after a cabinet meeting in which French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was […]
Tag: Aleppo
UN Security Council demands protection of hospitals in war zones
UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) by Carole LANDRY The UN Security Council on Tuesday demanded that hospitals and clinics be protected in war zones, in a resolution that draws attention to the rise in attacks on medical workers in conflicts worldwide. Less than a week after air strikes on a hospital in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo killed at least 30 people, the council unanimously adopted the measure that strongly condemned the targeting of […]
Kerry sees hope of extending truce to Syria’s Aleppo
(Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday talks were closer to extending a Syrian truce to Aleppo, the divided northern city where a sharp escalation of violence in recent weeks has torpedoed peace talks. Kerry was in Geneva for talks with other dignitaries to try to revive the first major ceasefire of the five-year Syrian war, which was put in place in February with U.S. and Russian backing but has since all […]
US, UN condemn Syria hospital bombing in war-ravaged Aleppo
by Karam al-Masri with Rim Haddad in Damascus ALEPPO , Syria (AFP) — The United States and the United Nations Thursday condemned an air strike on a hospital in Syria’s Aleppo, with Washington demanding that Russia restrain its Syrian ally. UN officials also voiced alarm at the “catastrophic deterioration” of the situation in Syria and appealed on world powers to salvage a February 27 truce. But in Aleppo on Thursday, fighting between rebels and regime […]
Syrian rebels claim to have shot down warplane and capture pilot south of Aleppo
ALEPPO PROVINCE, Syria (Reuters) – Islamist rebels shot down a Syrian warplane and captured its pilot on Tuesday (April 5) in an area south of Aleppo where insurgents are battling the Syrian army and allied militias, a monitoring group said. Syria’s military confirmed that a plane on a reconnaissance mission had been shot down and said it was hit by a surface-to-air missile. The pilot had bailed out and efforts were underway to rescue him, […]
Russian air strikes in Syria ‘directly enabling’ IS: US
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Russian air strikes in and around the city of Aleppo against opponents of the Syrian regime are benefitting the Islamic State group, a senior US official charged Wednesday. “What Russia’s doing is directly enabling ISIL,” Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the coalition fighting the group in Syria and Iraq, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. US Secretary of State John Kerry has taken the lead over the past […]
UN urges Turkey to open borders, end to bombing of Aleppo
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The United Nations urged Turkey to let in tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing a regime offensive around Aleppo on Tuesday, adding to calls for Russia to end air strikes ahead of fresh peace efforts. Up to 31,000 people have fled Aleppo and surrounding areas since last week, as government forces backed by Russian warplanes press an offensive that threatens to encircle the rebel-held eastern part of Syria’s second city. “The highest […]
