US calls for de-escalation in Syria

WASHINGTON DC - The US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Tuesday that Washington calls on the international community to de-escalate the situation in Syria. 

“We want every country doing everything they can in their power to de-escalate. We don't want to see tensions escalate at such a fraught time,” he told Rudaw during a press briefing on Tuesday. 

“What we continue to echo, is that from our viewpoint, from the United States viewpoint, the only, the only solution is a UN-led one that is consistent with UN Security Council resolution 2254,” he added. 

A coalition of Syrian rebel groups spearheaded by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a major offensive against the Syrian army over the past week. They took control of the northern city of Aleppo, the largest in the country, and advanced their offensive into Hama province. 

“We’re going to continue to make clear to every party and every country who engages with parties inside Syria that they do everything possible to protect civilians,” US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told Rudaw during a press briefing on Monday.

Syrians rose against the Assad regime in 2011, leading to a full-scale civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, left millions more in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and left much of the country’s infrastructure in ruins. 

The latest escalations have caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, with many of them already having been displaced several times in the last decade.