US threatens to end Russia diplomacy

The United States threatened on Wednesday to halt its diplomacy with Russia on Syria and it said it held Russia accountable for the use of incendiary and bunker-busting bombs on Aleppo — a view a US official said could open Moscow up to charges of war crimes.
Secretary of State John Kerry conveyed the message in a call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in which he voiced “grave concern” over the Russian-backed Syrian government’s air and land assault on rebel areas of Aleppo.
“Secretary Kerry expressed grave concern over the deteriorating situation in Syria, particularly for continued Russian and Syrian regime attacks on hospitals, the water supply network, and other civilian infrastructure in Aleppo,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a written statement.
“The secretary made clear the US and its partners hold Russia responsible for this situation, including the use of incendiary and bunker buster bombs in an urban environment, a drastic escalation that puts civilians at great risk,” he added.
Kerry also told Lavrov Washington was preparing to end its diplomatic engagement with Moscow on Syria — including possible intelligence-sharing — if Russia did not take “immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo” and restore a defunct cease-fire. A US official said that the use of incendiary and bunker busting weapons in an area with civilians could open Russia up to accusations of war crimes but said there is no forum in which Russia might realistically face such charges.
Meanwhile, Russian or Syrian warplanes knocked a major Aleppo hospital out of service on Wednesday, hospital workers said, and ground forces intensified an assault on the city’s besieged rebel sector, in a battle that has become a potentially decisive turning point in the civil war. Shelling damaged at least another hospital and a bakery, killing six residents queuing up for bread under a siege that has trapped 250,000 people with food running out. Both hospitals were now out of service.

Source: Arab News