John Kerry Calls for Halt to All Military Flights in Northern Syria for Humanitarian Aid

On Wednesday, September 21, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in his speech at the United Nations Security Council meeting in New York, emphasized the necessity of humanitarian aid to Syrian citizens and called for a complete halt to all flights over key humanitarian routes in northern Syria. According to the Associated Press, Kerry stated that such an action could lend credibility to efforts to end the civil war in Syria. The U.S. Secretary of State also considered the violation of the Syrian ceasefire a significant blow to efforts to establish peace in the country and stressed the need for a 'real' ceasefire in Syria. The Syria Support Group, consisting of 23 countries including the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, began negotiations in New York on Tuesday, September 20, coinciding with the 71st General Assembly of the United Nations. According to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, Sergey Lavrov stated after the Wednesday meeting that work on the list of terrorist groups in Syria should be resumed. The report indicated that Moscow considers achieving a sustainable solution to the Syrian crisis requires resuming negotiations between the conflicting parties in Syria without any preconditions. According to Reuters, Bashar Jaafari, Syria's representative at the United Nations, also announced on Wednesday that Damascus is ready to participate in peace talks without any preconditions, asserting that Syria will not become another Libya or Iraq. Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, stated that establishing peace in Syria may seem like a dream, but there is still hope for reviving the ceasefire and implementing a multi-phase transitional plan in Syria. Concurrently, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, described the attack on a humanitarian aid convoy to Syria as 'brutal' during his speech at the UN General Assembly, calling for a way to end the civil war in the country. The UN humanitarian agency in Geneva announced on September 20 that following an airstrike on its humanitarian aid convoy in western Aleppo, the delivery of aid has been halted. According to the International Red Cross, this attack left at least 20 dead. Some U.S. officials, in interviews with Reuters, stated that evidence suggests the attack was carried out by Russian 'Su-24' aircraft, but Moscow denied any involvement in the attack on the UN humanitarian convoy. According to Reuters, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that when the UN humanitarian convoy in Syria was attacked, an American drone was in the area. Russia has been conducting airstrikes in Syria for a year, claiming that the aim of these attacks is to bomb the positions of the 'Islamic State' (ISIS) and al-Qaeda militants, while the U.S. claims these attacks target moderate Syrian opposition positions. Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, an international aid organization announced on Wednesday that the target of the airstrike on Tuesday night in northern Syria, which resulted in the deaths of five medical staff, was not a clinic but a mobile emergency unit. This aid organization had previously stated that the Tuesday night airstrike had destroyed a temporary clinic of the organization located in rebel-controlled areas on the outskirts of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in London also reported that at least 13 people were killed in this attack, including 9 fighters, most of whom were members of the al-Nusra Front. According to the International Federation of Medical and Humanitarian Organizations, three nurses and two ambulance drivers died from their injuries. No group has claimed responsibility for this attack so far. Concurrently, France has also called on the United Nations to impose new sanctions against the Bashar al-Assad government for its use of chemical weapons in Syria. A UN investigative group earlier in September accused the Syrian government and the 'Islamic State' group of using chemical weapons against Syrian citizens. U.S. and Russian officials emphasized on Tuesday in New York that despite repeated violations of the ceasefire that had been in effect since the previous Monday, the agreement has not been completely undermined. However, the Syrian army announced on Monday evening that the ceasefire had effectively ended, and Russian fighter jets and Syrian government forces had launched extensive attacks against rebel positions in Aleppo. The city of Aleppo and its surrounding areas have become one of the centers of conflict between rebels and Syrian government forces for about three months. The civil war in Syria, which began in March 2011, has so far resulted in over 270,000 deaths and displaced half of the country's population.