US and its allies walk out of UN after row over war crimes

Russia has been accused of committing war crimes during an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council in New York.

The meeting, which was held yesterday at the request of US, Britain and France, saw intense disagreements between the permanent members of the council, over the conflict in Syria.

US Ambassador Samantha Power described Russia’s action in Syria as “barbarism”, not counter-terrorism, while Moscow’s UN envoy said ending the war “is almost an impossible task now” as Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow, bombed the city of Aleppo.

Accusation of war crimes against Russia follows the bombing of an aid convoy last week, which ended the ceasefire, and the use of bunker-busting and incendiary bombs that has been used against opposition forces in Eastern Aleppo. The targeting of the city’s main water supply, which has left the city’s 1.5 million people with no running water, is also a major reason for the rift.

During the heated exchange, UK ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft said: “The [Syrian] regime and Russia have plunged to new depths and unleashed a new hell on Aleppo,” before accusing both Russia and the Syrian regime of carrying out war crimes.

French envoy François Delattre joined in the condemnation stating that “Aleppo is to Syria what Sarajevo was to Bosnia, or what Guernica was to the Spanish war,” and added that “this week will go down in history as the one in which diplomacy failed and barbarism triumphed” before walking out of the chambers with his British and US counterparts.

In response, Russian envoy Vitaly Churkin blamed the breakdown of the ceasefire on groups fighting against the Syrian regime, including those supported by the US and went on to praise the Assad regime for its “admirable restraint”.