GENEVA — Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir has said that the Syrian regime was committing “war crimes” in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which has been exposed to heavy shelling over the past nine days despite a “cessation of hostilities” agreement in place.
Jubeir said in a press statement that “what is happening in Aleppo with the Syrian regime and its allies’ air strikes is tantamount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry met Adel Al-Jubeir and UN envoy Staffan de Mistura here on Monday.
Al-Jubeir called the situation in Aleppo with continued air strikes an “outrage” and a criminal violation of humanitarian law. He said that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad would be held accountable for the attacks and would be removed from power either through a political process or by force.
“There is only one side that is flying airplanes, and that is Bashar Al-Assad and his allies, so they are responsible for the massacre of women, children, and the elderly,” he said.
“They are responsible for the murder of doctors and medical personnel, and this situation, any way you slice it, will not stand. The world is not going to allow them to get away with this.”
Fresh air strikes pounded Aleppo city early Monday. Several neighborhoods, including the heavily populated Bustan Al-Qasr district, were hit.
Syria’s civil war is “in many ways out of control” Kerry warned Monday, vowing to work hard in the “coming hours” to salvage a tattered truce.
Speaking after talks with UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, Kerry said he would call his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to press for the ceasefire to be restored. But, in some of his most downbeat comments yet on the effort to end the deadly five-year-old conflict, Kerry warned that he did not want to promise success.
He said that in Aleppo Assad’s regime had deliberately targeted three clinics and a major hospital, killing doctors and patients and threatening the truce.
“The attack on this hospital is unconscionable,” he said. “And it has to stop.” — Agencies
