The United Nations envoy halted his attempts to launch Syrian peace talks on Wednesday after Syria’s army, backed by Russian air strikes made major advances on the opposition held areas around Aleppo.
The UN said it had been told hundreds of families had been uprooted following “an unprecedented frequency of air strikes in the past two days,” reports Reuters.
Speaking to press after temporarily halting the talks, the UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said,
“I have indicated from the first day that I won’t talk for the sake of talking. I have concluded frankly that after the first week of prepatory talks there is more work to be done, not only by us but by th stakeholders.”
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the country had no intention of ending its campaign, stating,
“Russian strikes will not cease until we really defeat terrorist organisations like (the al-Quadei-linked) Jabhat al-Nusra. And I don’t see why these airstrikes should be stopped.