‘Aleppo Settlement Hampered by West’s Reluctance to Exert Pressure on Terrorist’- Ryabkov

MOSCOW- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday that “Russia and the Syrian government have been taking all possible steps to alleviate the difficulties that the residents of Aleppo are facing.”

He added “the solution to the Aleppo humanitarian problem is not in Russia’s hands at the moment, Moscow calls for exerting pressure on the terrorists.

“You can see how reasonable and responsible the Russian military unit’s command has been while fulfilling the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,” the deputy minister went on to say. “On November 4, a new humanitarian pause will be launched as Russian and Syrian warplanes haven’t been conducting any operations in this area for 17 days now.”

 “I would like address those who continue bashing Moscow for what is going on in Syria and have been looking for new pretexts. I call on them to remove their ideological blinders, and after all acknowledge the truth that it is not in Russia’s hand to decide whether the humanitarian problem in eastern Aleppo will be solved,” he stressed. “Pressure needs to be exerted on the terrorists and extremists who are actually preventing these problems from being solved.”

Aleppo settlement hampered by West’s reluctance to exert pressure on terrorists

The efforts to solve the humanitarian situation in Syria’s Aleppo bump into the unwillingness of Russia’s partners to tighten the screws on terrorists, Russian deputy foreign minister reiterated.

“The aircraft of Russia’s Aerospace Forces have not been working in the Aleppo area for 17 days,” Ryabkov said.

“The problems linked to easing the humanitarian situation in the city bump into the reluctance of those who confront Russia to exert pressure on terrorists,” the diplomat stressed.

Zakharova Says Syrian Militants Used Humanitarian Pause for Regrouping Forces

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday that gunmen in Syria have used the humanitarian pause for regrouping forces and building up arsenals.

“The situation in Syria is very grave,” she said. “Jabhat al-Nusra (now renamed to Fateh al-Sham) and ISIS (both outlawed in Russia) used the October 20-23 humanitarian pause, introduced for easing the position of civilians locked up in Aleppo.

“They have regrouped forces, built up reserves and then tried to break through the defenses of Syrian Army forces by launching a major offensive on western Aleppo on October 28-30,” Zakharova said.

“White Book” on Syria

Zakharova has confirmed that Russia circulated the “White Book” on Syria in the UN Security Council.

“These are photographic materials from the list of military actions by the US and its allies in Syria which lead to a big number of civilian deaths and destruction of civilian infrastructure,” she said. “Theaw photographic materials underlie the White Book on Syria that the Russian side circulated in the UN Security Council,” Zakharova added.

The diplomat called strange the reaction of the US Department of State which refused to comment on the document. “As things stand now, the State Department gives close attention to ‘sketched on the back of an envelope’ materials of such agencies as the so-called ‘Syrian Observatory for Human Rights’ and other dubious nongovernmental organizations, but it refused to comment on a selection of documented evidence that was prepared officially and handed over to the UN Security Council as an official document,” Zakharova said. “This is absolutely inexplicable,” she noted.

H.M