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Extraordinary, indeed

Sep 27,2016 - Last updated at Sep 27,2016

Sunday’s UN Security Council extraordinary emergency meeting on Syria, more exactly attempting to end the intensive bombing of Aleppo, was “extraordinary” in the level of incrimination levelled by the US and Russia against each another as well.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said “what Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism; it is barbarism”, and Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, equally harshly, accused the US of protecting “terrorists” and not living up to its agreement with Moscow.

The people of Syria, meanwhile, are paying dearly for this deep divide between Moscow and the West, Washington in particular, with casualties averaging 100 a day, not to mention the thousands who are injured and maimed, the displaced, the refugees and the wholesale destruction of the country.

Neither Moscow nor Washington appear ready to give priority to saving lives, concentrating instead on a contest of wills and winning the battle over Aleppo. 

Russia is determined to win the war in Syria, come what may while all that Washington seeks now is to save face over the conflict in this Arab country.

Churkin said rebels take medicine and food allocated for civilians and that “200,000 Aleppo residents are prisoners of terrorist groups”.

That seems to give Russian warplanes justification to continue dropping bombs indiscriminately, with, the result, chillingly high death toll figures among Syrians.

The UK ambassador to the UN said that the killings in Aleppo have reached the level of becoming war crimes but, like everybody else, offered no solution. 

War crimes, indeed, but what is the international community willing to do about it?

Meeting, complaining and throwing accusations, with no strong action to stop the carnage does not help.

All parties in the war in Syria and their many backers must show the will to put an end to the war and give priority to saving the lives of the remaining innocent Syrians. 

The game of recriminations, of laying fault at this or that door should stop. The most pressing issue is to save lives.

Neither Moscow nor Washington appear so far to care about that, so the UN needs to take a decision to intervene in Syria, and stick to it.

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