(Newswire.net — May 12, 2016) — MOSCOW – US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said tens of thousands of lives have been saved and a million people have received aid thanks to the Syria ceasefire established with Russia’s help, Russia Today reported.
The war, however, can’t end until the US and Russia agree upon it, and a solution is not even close due to the opposite stands on the crisis in Syria. Kerry commended Russia’s ceasefire efforts that saved lives but was critical of Moscow’s ‘unworkable’ proposal to end the war.
Russia and the US announced Monday that they would work towards reviving February’s ceasefire agreement, which has deteriorated since, RT reports. The fighting has renewed in the northern city of Aleppo.
The ceasefire was agreed upon between government troops backed by Russia and the rebels backed by the US, with terrorists being exempt from the ceasefire. The fighting has renewed in Aleppo, one of the strongest Al-Nusra militant strongholds. Al-Nusra militants are considered terrorists by the Syrian government and by the rebels as well.
“We would not have gotten the initial ceasefire without Russia. And literally tens of thousands of lives were saved. You can add it up: 200 people a day were being killed. That stopped for a period of time,” Kerry told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.
“People hadn’t received any humanitarian assistance for years. Almost a million people have now received humanitarian assistance, and so there has been some benefit to this. Is it perfect? No. Are there still problems to work out? Yes,” Kerry continued.
“Right now they [Russians] are angling for the political solution they want. And it’s not necessarily a workable equation,” Kerry said referring to the fact that Moscow wants to avoid “becoming the target of the entire Sunni world and having every jihadi in the region coming after Russia.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed top Russian military officials and arms manufacturers during a meeting in Sochi on Tuesday, not hiding his satisfaction with the military campaign in Syria. He said that the situation in Syria “remains complicated” emphasizing the priority of establishing a firm political settlement.
The Russian president wishes to maintain political order with President Assad. The US Secretary of State John Kerry explained to Amanpour that the Syrian people are divided and Putin’s idea is “not necessarily a workable equation.”
“You have Kurds versus Kurds, you have Kurds versus Turkey, you have Saudi Arabia and Iran, you have Sunni and Shiite, you have people again Daesh [IS] and people against Assad. I mean, this is a very complicated battlefield,” Kerry said.