US says Syrian regime using starvation as ‘weapon of war’

WASHINGTON — The United States accused the Syrian regime Friday of using “starvation as a weapon of war” — a war crime under the Geneva Conventions — stepping up the rhetoric against Bashar Al-Assad. Rejecting the Kremlin claims that attacks on Aleppo have stopped, a US official told AFP “the regime has rejected UN requests to deliver aid to Eastern Aleppo — using starvation as a weapon of war.” The language mirrors the Geneva Conventions’ prohibition against starving civilians “as a method of warfare.” Aleppo’s quarter of a million residents have been besieged and bombarded for months, prompting international outcry. Washington is currently weighing further sanctions against Syria and a push for justice at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. Officials hope that Russian President Vladimir Putin may rethink his country’s participation in a war that has seen chemical weapons and barrel bombs used against civilians, if Russia is seen as an international pariah. Earlier Friday Russia failed to win re-election to the UN Human Rights Commission, a serious diplomatic blow. “We are taking steps, whether its ramping up public pressure or other forms of pressure,” a second senior Obama administration official told AFP. “We are still looking at the whole arsenal of tools to make them feel the weight of international criticism, not saying that in and of itself is going to work.” — AFP