The United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, has called on efforts against ISIS, or Daesh to intensify. Speaking during a visit to Rome, he was especially critical of the humanitarian situation in Syria and the government of Assad, whom he accused of not cooperating to allow humanitarian aid to reach the civilian population.
JOHN KERRY
United States Secretary of State
'The crisis in Syria it's simply getting worse by the day, not better. And it will help enormously if those who said they are there fighting Daesh, fight Daesh.â?
John Kerry said the situation in Syria is desperate, and there has never been such a situation since the time of the Second World War.
JOHN KERRY
United States Secretary of State
'Cities and communities all across Syria are besieged and they are specifically and purposely prevented by the Assad regime from receiving the supplies and the support that they need in order to survive. Other residences are described by eye witness as 'walking skeletons.â? People we haven't seen walking around in that condition since the concentration camps were liberated after WWIIâ?.
The Eternal City hosted the third meeting of the anti ISIS US-led coalition consisting of 23 primarily European and Arab countries.
At the meeting they established four main priorities for 2016.
First to completely cut off ISIS from the financial point of view and secondly to continue helping local governments expel the terrorists. The American Secretary of State reconfirmed that a large-scale military intervention is ruled out.
JOHN KERRY
United States Secretary of State
'The president as you know, put additional troops on the ground with the context of special forces in Syria. And he has made it clear that he is prepared to listen closely to his commanders, if they need more special forces to achieve certain goals, but he doesn't intend open up a broad-based... you know.. that could be an invasion of Syria.â?
The other two remaining tasks are humanitarian - such restoring water, electricity and other basic services â?? and creating stable governments in Libya, Iraq and especially Syria. The war alone in Syria has already claimed more than 250,000 lives.
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