The United States on Saturday said Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad lost control of Aleppo because of his reliance on Russia and Iran.
Syria's "reliance on Russia and Iran," along with its refusal to move forward with a 2015 peace process outlined by the UN Security Council, "created the conditions now unfolding," National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement.
He added: "At the same time, the United States has nothing to do with this offensive, which is led by Hay'at Tahir al-Sham (HTS), a designated terrorist organization."
Russia
Russia announced on Saturday that it had discussed the "dangerous" situation in Syria during separate talks with Iran and Turkey, following the takeover of most of the city of Aleppo by jihadists and their allies.
Russia and Iran are the main allies of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, while Turkey supports rebel factions.
During a phone call between the Russian and Turkish foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Hakan Fidan, "both parties expressed their deep concern over the dangerous developments in Syria, linked to the military escalation in the Aleppo and Idlib provinces," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
They stressed "the need to coordinate joint actions to stabilize the situation in Syria."
In a call between Mr. Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, the two ministers "expressed their extreme concern over the dangerous escalation in Syria," the statement said, referring this time to the "terrorist offensive by armed groups" in the Aleppo and Idlib regions.
"The ministers agreed on the need to intensify joint efforts to stabilize the situation in Syria," Moscow stated in its account of the conversation with the Iranian minister.
The jihadists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), dominated by Al-Qaeda's former Syrian branch, and Syrian rebel factions launched an offensive on Wednesday against regime forces in the neighboring provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, seizing dozens of localities before entering Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, on Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Iranian Response
Iran claimed on Saturday that "terrorist elements" had attacked its consulate in Aleppo.
In a statement, Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, "strongly condemned the attack" on the Iranian consulate, attributing it to "certain armed terrorist elements." He also confirmed that all staff members were unharmed.
The Iranian Foreign Minister is scheduled to visit Syria for discussions on the rebel assault, according to the ministry.
These incidents mark the first violence of this magnitude in years in Syria, where hostilities had largely ceased among the belligerents backed by various regional and international powers with diverging interests in the devastating war that began in 2011.
With AFP
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