Reporter spars with State Dept. spokesman on Aleppo

The US will continue to push for a political solution in Syria amid Turkish and Russian efforts to secure a truce in eastern Aleppo and the evacuation of civilians, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday.

John Kirby told reporters Secretary of State John Kerry reached out to his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to discuss the situation in Aleppo.

But Kirby tried to put the best face on American efforts, he was grilled by a reporter as to why US did not go beyond diplomatic calls to protect tens of thousands of civilians stranded in the Syrian city.

“You’ve failed repeatedly doing the same thing over and over again which is a combination of trying to bring together people in some sort of talks with, sort of, imperfect cease-fire and then when things go badly you get really angry and accuse them [supporters of the Syrian regime] of war crimes and crimes against humanity and then nothing ever changes. You haven’t succeeded once,” the reporter snapped.

Kirby responded by saying Kerry stressed the need for an immediate end to civilian deaths in Aleppo and blamed Iranian-backed Shia fighters for violating a truce secured Tuesday by Turkey and Russia.

“Whatever was announced yesterday obviously, didn’t survive very long due to the regime and to malicious fighters that are backed by Iran and violating it,” Kirby quoted from Kerry’s telephone call as he defended US diplomatic efforts to reach a political solution.

“The failure is in the belief that this war can be solved militarily,” he said. “The failure is on Russia for not putting the proper pressure on the Assad regime to stop the brutality.”

The reporter responded by saying that as the strongest country in the world, the US has a responsibility to do more than conduct diplomatic discussions to pave the way for the international community to find a solution in Syria.

Kerry’s call with his counterparts comes amid the reinstatement of a truce in Aleppo and Moscow’s announcement of a trilateral summit with Iranian and Turkish officials for 27 December in Moscow.

Kirby acknowledged that the US is not part of the discussion between Turkey and Russia and is not invited to the summit.