Ryabkov: Moscow ‘Close to Understanding’ with Washington on Aleppo

 MOSCOW-Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday that Moscow and the US are close to reaching an understanding on the situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

He added that the two countries had exchanged documents regarding the crisis over the past several days, but he was circumspect about the prospects.

“We are close to reaching an understanding, but I want to warn against high expectations,” Ryabkov said, according to Press TV.

 The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a potential US-Russia deal to allow militants to safely leave the besieged city was still on the agenda.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to meet his American counterpart John Kerry in Hamburg, Germany, later on Thursday.

The two men on Wednesday discussed the situation in Aleppo, including the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians, according to US State Department spokesman John Kirby.

Ryabkov criticized Mogherini’s remarks on humanitarian aid to Syria outright distortion of facts

Ryabkov also said that remarks by EU Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini, who said that humanitarian aid to Syria is provided solely by the EU are an outright distortion of facts, according to Itar tass.

“The UN humanitarian plan is something that exists only on paper. The Geneva-based international relations experts and humanitarian workers, for some inexplicable reasons, squandered dozens of opportunities to get involved in the process, to team up to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo, its suburbs and other areas of Syria,” Ryabkov elaborated. “However, this was not done strictly for political reasons, because these humanitarian workers are often guided by entirely different considerations, which are a far cry from furnishing humanitarian assistance.”

“In light of this, I would also mention a statement made by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who said that humanitarian aid to Syria is provided by the EU only,” he resumed. “Apparently, the EU believes that it has only those ‘clients’ in Syria who are fighting against the legitimate government. So it looks like they are the recipients of the EU’s humanitarian aid.”

“This is an outrageous distortion of facts and an attempt to ignore what Russia has been doing for a long time,” Ryabkov stressed. “No one except Russia is providing humanitarian assistance. We are not seeking to get the upper hand.”

Mogherini earlier claimed speaking in Berlin that the EU is not just one of the parties, but the only party, which provides humanitarian aid for Syria and the areas around it.

H.M