The Obama administration threatened Wednesday to suspend plans for coordinating counterterrorism strikes in Syria with Russia unless Moscow moves to stop its assault on the city of Aleppo and restore a collapsed cease-fire.
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Secretary of State John F. Kerry, in a telephone call to his Russian counterpart, “made clear the United States and its partners hold Russia responsible for this situation,” including the “drastic escalation” of its military actions in recent days and its refusal to ensure the safe passage of humanitarian aid to government-besieged areas, the State Department said.
The United States, Kerry told Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, “is making preparations to suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria . . . unless Russia takes immediate steps to end” the heightened carnage in Aleppo, where at least a quarter-million civilians are trapped amid withering Syrian and Russian bombing.
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