USA slams Russia for backing Syrian government

US Secretary of State John Kerry has criticized Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, describing it as “irresponsible and profoundly ill-advised.”

Kerry made the remarks on Tuesday before the opening of a conference on Afghanistan organized by the European Union in Brussels, Belgium.

“My government is absolutely convinced that we are in pursuit of the correct goals in Syria,” Kerry said, adding, “but we acknowledge in sorrow, and I have to tell you with a great sense of outrage, that Russia has turned a blind eye to Assad’s deplorable use of…chlorine gas, barrel bombs against his people.”

He alleged that Russia and the Syrian government “have rejected diplomacy,” and instead are “trying to pursue a military victory over the broken bodies, the bombed-out hospitals, the traumatized children of a long-suffering land.”

US to blame for talks failure
Russia, however, says that the US is to blame for the failure of diplomatic talks aimed at resolving the crisis in Syria.

“The problem is that for the whole time we were involved in Russian-American negotiations… we realized very clearly that the US had no joint position. Different organizations, different structures in Washington were taking different positions on what’s going on Syria.

They had absolutely different views,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova during an interview with RT on Tuesday.

Malik Sumeed
Malik Sumeed is a Senior Managing Editor of The Kashmir Scenario.