US Secretary of State John Kerry was to travel to Geneva yesterday in a show of support for the ceasefire between the Syrian government and rebel forces, US officials said on Saturday.
Kerry is to meet with the foreign ministers of Jordan and Saudi Arabia and UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, the US Department of State said in a statement.
The trip comes with a US and Russian-backed ceasefire under threat as Syrian government aircraft continue to attack the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
“In all of his discussions, the secretary will review ongoing efforts to reaffirm the cessation of hostilities nationwide in Syria, obtain the full humanitarian access to which the Syrian government committed, and support a political transition” as called for in a UN Security Council resolution, the statement said.
A new round of UN-backed Syria peace talks is set to begin on Tuesday next week in Geneva after the last round ended last week with no progress.
Aleppo is a key battleground of vital strategic significance to both sides in the Syrian civil war.
The truce, which came into force on Feb. 27, has done little to ease the threat against the city.
The US on Saturday demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces halt their bombardment of Aleppo and help restore a nationwide ceasefire.
Terrified residents fled a new wave of airstrikes on rebel-held areas of the divided city as key regime backer Russia rejected calls to rein in its ally.
In Aleppo’s rebel-held east, dozens of civilians left the battered Bustan al-Qasr district early on Saturday, a reporters said.
“The situation has become unbearable,” Abu Mohammed said as he prepared to flee with his wife and five children. “Everything is paralyzed.”
Russia said that it would not ask Damascus to halt air raids on Aleppo.
“No, we are not going to put pressure on [Damascus] because one must understand that the situation in Aleppo is part of this fight against the terrorist threat,” Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Gennady Gatilov said.
At least 246 civilians have died in shelling, rocket fire and air strikes in both sides of the city since April 22, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS