– Kerry Calls For War Crimes Probe Against Russia, Syria:
It will likely not come as a surprise that just one day after George Soros slammed Russian president Putin for “heinous crimes against humanity“, giving the greenlight to the media and policymakers to follow suit, moments ago the paragon of non-interventionist foreign policy, US Secretary of State John Kerry, said that Russia and Syria should face a war crimes investigation for their attacks on Syrian civilians.
When making the statement, Kerry alleged that Syrian forces struck another hospital overnight, killing 20 people and wounding 100, adding that Russia and Syria owe the world “more than an explanation” about why they keep hitting hospitals and women and children.
“Russia and the regime owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals, medical facilities, children, women,” Kerry said after meeting with the French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Friday. “These are acts that beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes.”
Moscow has responded that Syrian jets, backed by the Russian air force, are targeting militants in East Aleppo after jihadist groups in control of the enclave there repeatedly violated the cessation of hostilities, according to Moscow and Damascus. UN estimates put the number of militants in East Aleppo between six and eight thousand, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, about half of whom belong to the terrorist organization Al-Nusra Front. Earlier today it was reported that Russia is prepared to urge the Syrian government to let them depart the city, Lavrov added. Retuers confirmed as much when it reported earlier today that Assad offers rebels amnesty if they surrender Aleppo
The UN’s envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, personally offered to escort the militants out. “If you [Al-Nusra] did decide to leave, in dignity with your weapons, to Idlib or anywhere you wanted to go, I personally am ready, physically ready, to accompany you,” he said on Thursday.
As a reminder, earlier this week Washington suspended bilateral contacts with Russia over the Syrian crisis on Monday, accusing Moscow of not doing enough to restrain the government in Damascus. The Foreign Ministry in Moscow said that Russia had made every effort to preserve the September 9 ceasefire agreement, while repeatedly urging Washington to live up to its obligations and separate the so-called “moderate opposition” fighters from Al-Nusra and other terrorists.
He also accused the two countries of undertaking a “targeted strategy … to terrorize civilians”, while saying nothing at all about the thousands of innocent civilians killed by US drone strikes under the Obama administration, and even less about the ongoing Saudi airstrikes in Yemen which have killed tens of thousands of civilians ever since the start of the March 2015 conflict which, unlike the proxy war in Syria, has gotten virtually no media coverage in the past year.
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