Aleppo battle, Russia doubt dim hope on Syria deal

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday in Munich that daily military coordination between U.S. and Russian forces is “the key tool” to ending the fighting in Syria.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday in Munich that daily military coordination between U.S. and Russian forces is “the key tool” to ending the fighting in Syria.

MUNICH -- Hopes of securing a temporary truce in Syria within a week dimmed Saturday as Syrian government forces tightened the noose around rebel-held parts of Aleppo and Russia's foreign minister put the chances of a quick truce at less than 50 percent.

photo

AP

Secretary of State John Kerry (left) and German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier confer Saturday in Munich.

His comments and strong words from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry underscored U.S.-Russian disagreements over Syria.

Diplomats from countries with interests in Syria's five-year civil war -- including the United States, Russia, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia -- agreed Friday to work toward a temporary "cessation of hostilities" within a week. They also agreed to "accelerate and expand" deliveries of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian communities beginning this week.

The truce deal in Munich came as Syrian government forces, aided by a Russian bombing campaign, are trying to encircle rebels in Aleppo, the country's largest city, and cut off their supply route to Turkey.

Speaking Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, pressed to say how confident he is that a "cessation of hostilities" will be implemented within a week, replied: "49" out of 100 percent. He indicated that Russia remains suspicious of U.S. intentions.

Lavrov said everyday military cooperation between the U.S. and Russia is "the key tool" to ensuring the delivery of humanitarian supplies and an end to hostilities in Syria. But he complained that coordination hasn't gone beyond an agreement to avoid in-air accidents.

Kerry, who negotiated the deal with Lavrov and others, said after Lavrov's assessment about the proposed truce that "we will, we will make it work."

Still, Kerry's address earlier Saturday to the Munich conference underscored the tensions between Russia and the West over Syria.

He said Russia would have to change tactics if the agreement for a temporary truce in Syria is to actually take effect in the planned time frame.

"To date, the vast majority, in our opinion, of Russia's attacks have been against legitimate opposition groups. And to adhere to the agreement it made, we think it is critical that Russia's targeting change," Kerry said. "If people who want to be part of the conversation are being bombed, we're not going to have much of a process."

The State Department said Kerry and Lavrov met again Saturday afternoon to go over plans for a task force to work out the details for the truce and also briefly discussed the organization of a second task force to coordinate humanitarian aid.

It remains unclear whether fighters in Syria will adhere to a truce. On Saturday, Syrian government forces captured another village near Aleppo.

State TV and an opposition activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said troops captured Tamoura on Saturday during shelling and airstrikes by Russian warplanes. Syrian government troops still have to take several more villages and towns, including Hayan, Anadan, Hreitan and Kfar Hamra, to completely encircle the Aleppo rebels.

Syria's war has killed 250,000 people, wounded more than 1 million and displaced half the country's population. A half-million Syrians were among the 1 million refugees who flowed into Europe last year in the biggest migration the continent has seen since World War II. Neighboring Turkey is hosting at least 2.5 million refugees from Syria.

Also in Munich, Germany's foreign minister pressed for progress on a year-old peace plan for eastern Ukraine as he met Saturday with senior officials from Russia, Ukraine and France.

Germany and France brokered the peace deal for eastern Ukraine in Minsk, Belarus, a year ago and have been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to try to implement it. Still, fighting hasn't fully stopped and there has been little progress in bringing about a political settlement.

"I am counting on it being clear to all those in positions of responsibility in Kiev and Moscow that we no longer have forever to implement what was agreed in Minsk," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said later Saturday that the Minsk agreement must be observed by everyone -- "but we believe that it's first and foremost up to the Kiev authorities to do that."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, meanwhile, stressed the need to return control of the Ukrainian-Russian border to Kiev.

Medvedev also told a meeting of top defense officials, diplomats and national leaders that sanctions imposed after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and new moves by NATO "only aggravate" tensions.

"NATO's policies related to Russia remain unfriendly and opaque -- one could go so far as to say we have slid back to a new Cold War," Medvedev said. "On almost a daily basis, we're called one of the most terrible threats either to NATO as a whole, or Europe, or to the United States."

The comments came after NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the Munich Security Conference that "Russia's rhetoric, posture and exercises of its nuclear forces are aimed at intimidating its neighbors, undermining trust and stability in Europe."

Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Lee, Bassem Mroue, Dominique Soguel and David Rising of The Associated Press.

A Section on 02/14/2016

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