ESSEN, Germany (AFP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday it was a “disgrace” that the international community had been unable to alleviate the suffering in Syria’s besieged city of Aleppo.
“Aleppo is a disgrace,” she said in a speech to her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, slamming Russian and Iranian support for the bombardment by Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“It is a disgrace that we have been unable to establish humanitarian corridors, but we must continue to fight for it.”
Merkel said she was shocked to see tens of thousands of Germans hitting the streets to demonstrate against free trade deals but virtually no protests against the bloodletting in Syria.
“There is something wrong there,” she said.
Merkel added that the world needed a coordinated international fight against the “asymmetrical threat of Islamist terrorism”.
“But instead, Syria is succumbing to a vicious civil war in which Russia and Iran are backing the Assad regime in its brutal course of action against its own people,” she said.
Russia and the US are on opposite sides of the conflict in Syria with Moscow backing Assad with airpower and Washington pushing for the strongman to go.
Regime forces have so far seized two-thirds of Aleppo’s rebel-held east since starting an operation to recapture the entire city in mid-November.
The assault has raised an international outcry, but Russia and China on Monday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in the city.
Moscow has proposed setting up four humanitarian corridors into the city’s east but said regime approval remained essential.
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