US Threatens to End Syria Talks With Russia Over Continued Assault on Aleppo

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened to end all Syria negotiations with Russia today, in response to Russia's weeklong aerial assault on the besieged city of Aleppo.

Russia and the United States attempted to broker a cease-fire in the country, but negotiations fell apart last week, followed by some of the most persistent attacks carried out by the Russian and Syrian regime alliance in the five-year civil war.

According to a readout of phone conversation between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this morning, provided by the State Department, Kerry expressed "grave concern" over the continued Russian-backed assault - including attacks on hospitals, water supplies and the use of devastating bunker buster bombs.

Kerry told Lavrov that "the United States is making preparations to suspend U.S.-Russia bilateral engagement on Syria - including on the establishment of the Joint Implementation Center - unless Russia takes immediate steps to end the assault on Aleppo and restore the cessation of hostilities," according to State Department spokesman John Kirby.

The Joint Implementation Center was to be established as a base for the U.S. and Russian military to coordinate strikes against extremist forces in Syria. But moving forward with the facility has always been contingent on a cessation of hostilities between the regime and the opposition forces.

Instead of achieving peace and a military partnership, the cease-fire collapsed, leading to some of the worst violence seen in years.

On Tuesday, Raed al-Saleh, the leader of the White Helmets, an unarmed civilian rescue organization in Syria, revealed sobering statistics. In the past eight days, he said, Aleppo has seen 1,000 deaths, 1,700 airstrikes (19 of them using bunker buster bombs and 200 with cluster munitions), a declaration that the hospitals can't take new patients and the realization that only 30 doctors remain in the city to treat the wounded.

Early this morning, two of those hospitals were struck, reportedly killing two patients and injuring three hospital staffers.

After the State Department's warning, U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., released a statement that sarcastically read, "Finally, a real power move in American diplomacy. Secretary of State John 'Not Delusional' Kerry has made the one threat the Russians feared most - the suspension of U.S.-Russia bilateral talks about Syria. No more lakeside tte--ttes at five-star hotels in Geneva. No more joint press conferences in Moscow. We can only imagine that having heard the news, Vladimir Putin has called off his bear hunt and is rushing back to the Kremlin to call off Russian airstrikes on hospitals, schools and humanitarian aid convoys around Aleppo. After all, butchering the Syrian people to save the Assad regime is an important Russian goal. But not if it comes at the unthinkable price of dialogue with Secretary Kerry."

Kirby responded, saying, "It is easy to criticize the efforts that the nation's chief diplomat is making when you aren't accountable, you know, for the results of those discussions."