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U.S. Suspends Talks With Russia on Syria U.S. Suspends Talks With Russia on Syria
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The United States formally suspended talks with Russia about the protracted Syria conflict on Monday because of the Russian military’s role in the assault on the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday followed through with its threat to formally suspend talks with Russia over the protracted conflict in Syria, accusing the Kremlin of joining with the Syrian Air Force in carrying out a brutal bombing campaign against the besieged city of Aleppo.
The United States also shelved plans with Russia for the joint military targeting of jihadists in Syria, the State Department said in a statement. Anticipating the end of the talks after repeated warnings from American officials, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia responded by withdrawing from a landmark arms control agreement that calls for each side to dispose of 34 tons of plutonium, a material used in nuclear weapons.
The American step reflected aggravated tensions with Russia on a range of issues and raised new challenges over how to de-escalate and resolve the Syria war, which has left roughly half a million people dead since 2011. The developments signaled the further deterioration of relations between the United States and Russia, which are now bitterly at odds over Syria, Ukraine and other issues.
“The United States is suspending its participation in bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain the cessation of hostilities,” John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said in the statement, referring to the agreement on Syria reached with Russia on Sept. 9. “Cooperation over Syria was the Obama administration’s last and best shot for arresting the downward spiral in the bilateral relationship with Russia,” said Andrew S. Weiss, a former White House expert on Russia who is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The mistrust and hostility toward the United States by the Russian leadership is real and growing. It is going to be the driving force behind Russian external behavior for many years to come.”
The decision was announced less than a week after Secretary of State John Kerry threatened to suspend the talks with Russia aimed at reviving the cease-fire agreement. Just a month ago, it had appeared that Secretary of State John Kerry was on the verge of securing the long-sought cooperation of Russia on Syria through an agreement with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, that called for a reduction of violence, access to humanitarian aid and the joint targeting of jihadist groups. But no sooner was the agreement announced than it began to fray — first because of the accidental bombing of Syrian troops by the American-led coalition and then because of what the United States claimed was a deliberate bombing by Russian aircraft and Syrian helicopters of a humanitarian convoy headed to Aleppo.
That deal collapsed after a few days, with each side blaming the other, as Syria and its Russian ally intensively bombed rebel-held parts of Aleppo, the northern Syrian city that has become a focus of the war. In recent days, Russian and Syrian aircraft have carried out attacks, mainly in Aleppo, using bunker-busting bombs, incendiary munitions, cluster bombs, barrel bombs and thermobaric bombs, which produce devastating blasts, according to American intelligence officials. About 275,000 civilians are trapped in those areas, including an estimated 100,000 children. Hundreds of people in those areas have been killed in the past week, international aid groups say.
Roughly 275,000 civilians are trapped in those areas, including an estimated 100,000 children. Hundreds of people there have been killed in the past week, international aid groups say. President Obama’s administration was poised to halt the talks last week unless the Russians stopped the bombing and persuaded President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to do the same. But Mr. Kerry asked the White House for more time to continue his discussions.
“This is not a decision that was taken lightly,” Mr. Kirby said. “The United States spared no effort in negotiating and attempting to implement an arrangement with Russia aimed at reducing violence, providing unhindered humanitarian access, and degrading terrorist organizations operating in Syria,” including fighters of the Islamic State and the Levant Conquest Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda also known as the Nusra Front. Mr. Kerry talked a few times with Mr. Lavrov, and teams of American and Russian experts had what the State Department called “very robust discussions” throughout the weekend. At one point, a cease-fire lasting several days appeared to be under discussion. But by Monday it was clear that the gulf between Russia and the Western powers was as wide as ever.
“Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments,” the statement added. “Rather, Russia and the Syrian regime have chosen to pursue a military course, inconsistent with the cessation of hostilities, as demonstrated by their intensified attacks against civilian areas, targeting of critical infrastructure such as hospitals, and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in need.” “This is not a decision that was taken lightly,” John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement issued on Monday. “The United States spared no effort in negotiating and attempting to implement an arrangement with Russia aimed at reducing violence, providing unhindered humanitarian access, and degrading terrorist organizations operating in Syria,” including fighters of the Islamic State and the Levant Conquest Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda formerly known as the Nusra Front.
When Mr. Kerry first threatened a suspension, he asked for more time to continue his discussions with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. The two diplomats talked a few times by telephone but did not resolve the matter. “Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments,” the statement added. “Rather, Russia and the Syrian regime have chosen to pursue a military course, inconsistent with the cessation of hostilities, as demonstrated by their intensified attacks against civilian areas,” which American officials say has included hospitals.
The Russians have said the United States has not lived up to its side of the agreement because it did not persuade moderate opposition fighters to dissociate themselves from the radical jihadists in Syria that both the Americans and Russians have sought to target. Notably missing from the statement was any reference to steps the United States might take to strengthen the Syrian opposition by providing antiaircraft weapons or imposing economic sanctions to punish Russian organizations that are helping the Syrian government.
Even though talks have been broken off, the United States military will continue to “deconflict” its air operations with the Russian military, the State Department said. The Obama administration has announced that it will consider “options and alternatives.” But with Mr. Obama reluctant to intervene in the escalating Syrian civil war or to risk an inadvertent confrontation with the Russian military, it is not clear how much interest the White House has in pursuing such options.
The formal suspension of the talks left the troubled diplomatic efforts to halt the war in further disarray. Mr. Kerry said in a meeting with Syrian civilians last month that he was one of three or four people in the administration who had previously argued for using force against the Assad government, and that he had lost the argument.
The suspension came as France was pushing the United Nations Security Council to adopt a toughly worded resolution that calls on the Syrian government to halt aerial bombardments and let in humanitarian aid, even as proposed language in the resolution promises accountability for war crimes, diplomats said. But Mr. Putin had a move of his own. Saying relations with the United States had deteriorated in a “radically changed environment,” he issued a decree suspending his country’s participation in an agreement on the disposal of plutonium that was concluded in 2000 as one of the framework disarmament deals of the early post-Cold War period.
The draft resolution avoids references to Russia’s role in the aerial bombardments, diplomats said, but it still appears unlikely to win over Russian support. The deal has no bearing on the number of nuclear weapons deployed by the United States or Russia. Instead, it concerns the plutonium kept in storage in those countries that in theory could be used to make nuclear weapons.
The gulf between Russia and the Western powers on the Security Council over Syria now appears to be as wide as it has been in years. Gary Samore, who oversaw the negotiations of the plutonium agreement for President Bill Clinton’s administration, said Mr. Putin’s response had more political than military significance.
The cease-fire agreement was never given much chance of success. It was especially undermined after an accidental American bombing of Syrian forces on Sept. 17 — for which the United States apologized — and then the Sept. 19 bombing of a United Nations aid convoy. “It is a political gesture that is part of the deterioration of relations, particularly after the collapse of the Syrian cease-fire agreement,” said Mr. Samore, now the executive director for research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. “We can both afford to get rid of 34 tons of plutonium without putting much of a dent in the plutonium that is available for military use.”
The Americans have blamed the Russians for the convoy attack, which the Russians have denied. The British have accused Russia of war crimes. Still, a senior Obama administration official said the move was concerning. Even with the growing tensions in American-Russian relations, the United States has argued that agreements regarding weapons of mass destruction should be sacrosanct because they are in both sides’ interest, the official said.
Some diplomats at the United Nations suggested that the French resolution would corner Russia and ultimately force its veto. “The Kremlin has not bought that argument,” said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
Speaking to reporters in Moscow, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Gennadi Gatilov, on Monday called the French draft resolution “one-sided” and said it was designed to put “additional pressure on Syria and Russia,” according to a report by the Tass news agency. Mr. Putin’s decision to withdraw from the treaty may not have much practical effect beyond depriving each side of the opportunity to verify what the other is doing. The Russians had interpreted the treaty as requiring that the plutonium be irreversibly transformed into nonexplosive materials by being used in civilian nuclear power plants as mixed oxide fuel, or mox. Russia has signaled that it plans to press ahead with that undertaking despite Mr. Putin’s order today.
The draft measure proposes to set up a “monitoring mechanism” to track a would-be cease-fire, and asks the secretary general to propose what form that would take within five days. But glitches and cost overruns at the mox plant near Aiken, S.C., delayed the American program. This year, Mr. Obama proposed canceling the program in the 2017 budget and sending the plutonium for long-term storage at a nuclear waste site in Carlsbad, N.M. The State Department has said the move complies with the treaty, but the Russians have said it does not, as Mr. Putin reaffirmed on Monday.
Negotiations were underway on Monday on the draft resolution. It is unclear whether or when it will be formally circulated for a vote. Russia has some say in that question, since it coincidentally presides over the Security Council in October, as part of a monthly rotation. At the United Nations, France is pushing the Security Council to adopt a toughly worded resolution that calls on the Syrian government to halt aerial bombardments and let in humanitarian aid.
But on Monday the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly I. Churkin, ruled out any immediate prospect for a stop to the airstrikes, saying that the Nusra Front had taken eastern Aleppo “hostage” and that Russian intervention had stopped its advance. “We’re trying to make sure black flags won’t fly over Damascus,” Mr. Churkin told reporters at a news conference.