Russia under fire at UN as air strikes pound Aleppo

Britain, France and the United States lashed out at Russia  yesterday over the worsening carnage in Syria as Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded Aleppo in one of the heaviest bombing raids of the five-year war.
 US ambassador Samantha Power accused Russia of “barbarism” during a Security Council emergency meeting called to demand that Moscow rein in its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and halt the intense air strikes.
 “Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war,” Power said. “What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism. It is barbarism.”
 At least 124 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo since the army on Thursday announced an operation to take it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
 “War crimes are being committed here in Aleppo,” French ambassador Francois Delattre said, calling for action to ensure the atrocities do not go unpunished.
 Britain’s envoy spoke of “a new hell” unleashed on Syrians with bunker-busting bombs and more sophisticated weaponry used in air strikes pummelling residential areas.
 “It is difficult to deny that Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes,” said British ambassador Matthew Rycroft.
 Britain, France and the United States had called for the urgent talks after days of intense diplomatic efforts to salvage a US-Russian ceasefire deal ended in failure at the weekend.
 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the “chilling” escalation making use of advanced weaponry against civilians could amount to war crimes.
 Ban called on world powers to “work harder for an end to the nightmare” in Syria that has left more than 300,000 people dead and driven millions from their homes.
 To protest against the attacks in Aleppo, the US, French and British ambassadors walked out of the Security Council chamber as the Syrian ambassador delivered his remarks.
 Russia’s ambassador Vitaly Churkin conceded that the surge in violence over the past days meant that “bringing a peace is almost an impossible task now”.
 Churkin again laid blame for the failed diplomacy with the United States. A US-Russian ceasefire deal that would have charted a way forward towards peace talks was broken by the “sabotage by the moderate opposition”, he claimed.
 Churkin however said that reviving the ceasefire was still a goal that Moscow could pursue if it was part of a “collective” effort on all sides.
 Despite the recriminations, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said a “tiny window of opportunity... still exists” for Russia and the United States to help Syria.
 He appealed for renewed efforts to allow Syria to “step away from the brink of more years of bloody conflict which risks to become even worse.”