Senior opposition official: Russian Federation not serious in talks with Aleppo rebels

Venezuela, too, voted against the move as a non-permanent member, while Angola abstained.

But Mr Lavrov said the United States and the UN were responsible for the current situation.

As for western Aleppo, he said the main concern was providing adequate shelter for those flooding in from the east, who are joining some 400,000 displaced Syrians already in that part of the city.

Britain’s ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said he had a simple answer to O’Brien’s question on why the Security Council could not act – Russian Federation.

He did not provide evidence to support the claim that the field hospital was deliberately targeted, or that it was hit by rebel fire. The hospital equipment was part of aid that Moscow had sent into the Furqan neighborhood in the government part of Aleppo the previous day.

An unspecified number of Syrian residents were also injured, Major General Konashenkov said.

The ministry says in a statement that was reported by Russian news agencies that “because of the failure of the arrester system’s cable, the Su-33 fighter rolled off the deck” on Monday. The AP crew was accompanied by representatives of the Syrian army.

With the fresh advance, the Syrian army has become in control of almost 60 percent of the rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo, as part of a broad offensive the government forces unleashed to drive the rebels out of that key city.

O’Brien added that those trying to flee the fighting faced new dangers, as rebel factions sought to stop them from leaving, or they were caught in the crossfire and then faced being seized and “disappeared” at regime checkpoints.

We review key events related to Syria, including continued Syrian army advances in Aleppo, airstrikes in Idlib province and news of USA and United Kingdom talks on humanitarian aid airdrops.

The rebels are now reduced to an area just kilometres across. The latest offensive has placed much of the city into the hands of Assad and his coalition of allies, including Russian Federation. He added that Moscow is ready to immediately send its experts to Geneva for talks with the USA that would coordinate joint action to “ensure the withdrawal of all rebels without exception from eastern Aleppo, ensure humanitarian supplies to the city residents and the restoration of normal life in eastern Aleppo”.

Residents have been reduced to scavenging for food, hospitals are not functioning after repeated military strikes and an estimated 25,000 people have taken unsafe escape routes out of eastern Aleppo since Saturday alone, O’Brien said. Malahifji said Lavrov’s comments had “cancelled everything” and the meetings in Turkey had “almost come to a halt”.

“We have no such information about such an incident and when such things happen the army announces them”, he said.

Yasser al-Youssef of the Nour al-Deen al-Zinki rebel group said any proposals “for the exit of rebel groups would be unacceptable”.

“It is for the Russians to leave”, he told AFP news agency.

Syrian opposition officials told the Reuters news agency on Friday that Russian Federation is not serious about the talks over a pause in the fighting.

State broadcaster al-Ikhabirya also showed hundreds of displaced people sitting on rain-soaked streets and others riding government buses to resettle in newly captured areas.