Kerry takes aim at Russia over Ukraine and Syria

“Humanitarian access to these most urgent areas will be a first step toward full, sustained, and unimpeded access throughout the country”, it added.

The International Syria Support Group also agreed “to accelerate and expand the delivery of humanitarian aid beginning immediately”. The so-called cessation of hostilities doesn’t cover airstrikes against ISIS or other terrorist groups, and the Russians say that is who they’re targeting in Aleppo.

Diplomats from countries backing the plan met on Friday to discuss sending in urgent humanitarian aid.

Above all, he urged “meaningful action on the ground”.

“Regardless of whether we can do that or not, this is a goal we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation”.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Al-Jubeir called Assad the “single most effective magnet for extremists and terrorists in the region” and said his removal was crucial for restoring stability.

What happens in Syria has a far more immediate regional fallout than events in Yemen where the Saudi military is struggling to win an unwinnable war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels unlike the war in Yemen, with its indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets, Saudi ground forces in Syria could force the United States to become more involved.

Medvedev criticized Western powers’ refusal to collaborate with Russian Federation in Syria.

KELEMEN: She says Russian Federation might be winning in its short-term goal of keeping Assad in power, but she says everyone else is anxious about the carnage in Syria, the refugee flows from the conflict and the rise of extremism.

The picture gets even murkier with a section of the Munich agreement that excludes not only Islamic State and Nusra but unspecified “other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the United Nations Security Council”.

A “cessation of hostilities” is set to come into force next week following talks in Munich.

The military source who was briefed on the matter said the operation had been going on for a number days.

Some Syrian cities have been cut off from aid for more than a year because of fighting.

Daily reports from the USA military for the same period indicate a much lower level of activity: 16 targets struck in Syria.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey both see the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as essential for ending Syria’s five-year civil war and are bitterly critical of Iran and Russia’s support of the Syrian regime.

How has the world reacted?

He added that “the killing in Syria has to stop if we are to move forward and find a political solution, one that protects Syria’s independence and integrity”.

The task force held its initial meeting at the UN headquarters in Geneva less than 24 hours after it was by the ISSG, the group that has been working since November to secure a broader ceasefire and Syrian political negotiations and is comprised of the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations, and 17 countries, including the United States and Russian Federation.

The main takeaway from the deal sealed by the foreign ministers from the International Syria Support Group is that more help will be delivered more quickly to besieged cities and regions in Syria. “But it is Turkey that is making the most concrete proposals”, he said.

AFPISIS militants in Aleppo, Syria.

Syrian state television announced the army and allied militia had on Saturday captured the village of al-Tamura overlooking rebel terrain northwest of Aleppo.