US, Russia tussle over Syria deal

‘This siege is much harder than the first one. No vegetables, no sugar. Nothing.

We came to buy a few things to cook and we couldn’t find a thing’

GENEVA: The United States and Russia grappled over a possible ceasefire deal for Syria on Friday, as resurgent Moscow-backed regime forces tightened the noose on the beleaguered city of Aleppo.

In Geneva, Secretary of State John Kerry was once more locked in talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov but US officials warned talks could not go on forever without a breakthrough.

The negotiations were focusing on clinching a ceasefire, getting humanitarian aid to civilians and starting political talks to end the five-year war that has killed more than 290,000.

However, the vexed question of President Bashar al-Assad’s fate remains, with Western powers calling for his removal and Russia backing him. The two powers back opposite sides in the civil war, with Moscow supporting the regime and the US behind a coalition of rebel groups it regards as moderate.

Washington wants concrete steps from Russia to force Assad to stop bombing his own people, respect a ceasefire and lift the siege of Aleppo.

"We need to see a situation where it’s clear within whatever is being agreed with the Russians that there won’t be a siege of Aleppo," a senior US official told reporters. Pro-regime forces have taken back a strategically important district on Aleppo’s southern outskirts, rolling back nearly every gain from a major month-long rebel offensive there, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday.

The government advance further sealed off Aleppo’s opposition-held eastern districts and regime troops backed by the Russian air force have completely encircled opposition-held neighbourhoods.

And in another major blow to the rebels, the top military commander of the Army of Conquest, the largest rebel alliance, was killed in an air strike during a meeting of the leaders of the anti-government group, Islamist sources said on Thursday.

The former Al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate recently renamed Fateh al-Sham Front, announced "the martyrdom" of commander Abu Omar Sarakeb on Twitter, in the biggest setback to the group since its formation early last year. In the besieged city, desperate civilians described a hungry battle for survival.

"This siege is much harder than the first one. During the first one, there were at least some products still in the market -- now there’s nothing at all," said one shopper, Omar al-Beik. "No products, no vegetables, no sugar. Nothing. We came to buy a few things to cook and we couldn’t find a thing," he said.