Syria Accuses US Of Seeking 'failure' Of Truce

PORLAMAR, Venezuela, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -19th Sept,2016) : Syria's UN ambassador accused the United States on Sunday of seeking the failure of a ceasefire in his country, after a US-led coalition strike on Syrian soldiers undercut the fragile deal.

"The objective of this US aggression is to bring about the failure of the truce agreed between Russia and the United States," said Bashar Jaafari, Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Venezuela.

The US-Russian deal to halt a five-year war that has killed more than 300,000 people is on the brink of collapse after US-led airstrikes killed scores of Syrian soldiers on Saturday and a barrage of bombing raids hit rebel-held districts in the city of Aleppo on Sunday.

Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, and the United States, which leads a coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in the region, had heated exchanges over the fraying of the ceasefire at an emergency UN Security Council meeting Saturday.

The meeting produced "zero" results, Jaafari said through an interpreter, because the US, Britain and France refused to "take measures" to atone for Saturday's air strikes, which the Pentagon said pilots believed targeted an IS position.

"US policy, in general terms, has committed dozens of similar mistakes," he told journalists. "The United States attacks and violates countries' sovereignty with lies." He said Syria planned to pressure for further Security Council meetings to hold Washington accountable.

"This won't stop here. Our friends on the Security Council, China and Russia, won't leave the matter at that," he said. "US aggression must be dealt with immediately to avoid the spread of fighting in the region and put a stop to American hypocrisy and lies."