Times of Israel  |  October 3, 2016

US Suspends Syria Talks With Russia: 'Our Patience Has Run Out'

Officials say Moscow failed to live up to commitments: 'There's nothing more to talk about'; Russia says it 'regrets' decision

By AFP

A Russian tank operating in Aleppo, Syria in 2016 (YouTube screenshot)

WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday suspended negotiations with Russia on efforts to revive a failed ceasefire in Syria and to set up a joint military cell to target jihadists.

“This is not a decision that was taken lightly,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said, accusing Russia and its Syrian ally of stepping up attacks on civilian areas.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said “everybody’s patience with Russia has run out.

“What is clear is there is nothing more for the US and Russia to talk about with regard to trying to reach an agreement that would reduce the levels of violence inside of Syria. And that’s tragic,” Earnest said.

Kirby said the Russian and US militaries will continue to use a communications channel set up to ensure their forces do not get in each others’ way during “counterterrorism operations in Syria.”

But the United States is calling home personnel who had been sent to Geneva in order to set-up a “Joint Implementation Center” with Russian officers to plan coordinated strikes.

And US diplomats will suspend discussions with Russia on reviving a September 9 deal reached between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Under that protocol, a truce came into effect on September 12 but it collapsed within a week amid bitter recriminations and a surge of fighting in the five-year-old civil war.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby briefs reporters on August 18, 2016. (screen capture/US State Department)

Washington has accused Moscow of failing to rein in President Bashar Assad’s government forces and abetting his strikes on civilian targets.

Moscow, meanwhile, says the United States failed to separate “moderate” anti-Assad rebels from al-Qaeda-linked jihadists.

“Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments, including its obligations under international humanitarian law,” Kirby said, in the statement.

According to the US spokesman, Russia was “either unwilling or unable to ensure Syrian regime adherence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed.

“Rather, Russia and the Syrian regime have chosen to pursue a military course, inconsistent with the Cessation of Hostilities, as demonstrated by their intensified attacks against civilian areas.”

Kirby accused Moscow and Damascus of “targeting of critical infrastructure such as hospitals, and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in need.”

And he repeated Washington’s charge that Russia and the regime were responsible for the deadly September 19 attack on a United Nations aid convoy in northern Syria, outside Aleppo.

Russia’s foreign ministry said it regretted the decision, claiming Washington was trying to shift responsibility for the failure onto Moscow.

“We regret this decision by Washington to curtail the work of the specialist groups in Geneva, to withdraw their experts and to limit contacts only to the area of avoiding any conflicts,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

“Washington simply did not fulfil the key condition of the agreement to improve the humanitarian condition around Aleppo,” Zakharova said. “After failing to fulfil the agreements that they themselves worked out, they are trying to shift responsibility on to someone else”.

Earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a halt to an agreement with the United States on plutonium disposal, citing Washington’s “unfriendly actions.”

The deal, signed in 2000, was meant to allow both nuclear powers to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium from their defense programs, a move seen as a key step in the disarmament process.

The two countries recommitted to the deal in 2010.

The Kremlin indicated Monday that it would stick to the agreement if Washington lifts sanctions and ends other policies seen as unfriendly to Moscow.

Original article here.