Russia Says It Would Support 48-Hour Cease-Fire in Aleppo to Allow In Aid

A top Russian official said Thursday that Moscow would support a 48-hour cease-fire to allow aid into the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, as the top U.S. diplomat reiterated a threat to cut off talks with Russia over the Syrian crisis.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. is close to cutting off talks with Russia on Syria, reiterating his earlier threat to end discussions if Moscow doesn’t halt an offensive on Aleppo.

“We’re on the verge of suspending the discussion,” Mr. Kerry said Thursday at a conference in Washington.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Obama administration has restarted so-called Plan B discussions on whether to give Syrian rebels vetted by the Central Intelligence Agency more firepower to fend off a stepped-up Russian and Syrian assault on Aleppo.

In addition to the CIA and its partners providing additional weapons, the U.S. is considering giving a green light to its regional allies, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, to provide more-powerful weapons systems to the rebels.

Mr. Kerry on Thursday faulted Moscow and the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a stepped-up offensive in Aleppo that included the targeting of a hospital Wednesday evening and the killing of hundreds in the past week.

“We’ve made it crystal clear to them [Russia] that under those kinds of circumstances, it is not possible to cooperate,” Mr. Kerry said.

The Kremlin on Thursday hit back at the U.S. threat to suspend engagement with Russia on the conflict.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow advocated a “48-hour pause” in the fighting to allow in aid but added that a longer cessation of hostilities would allow militant groups arrayed against the Syrian government to reorganize, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

“In order to ensure humanitarian access, we have repeatedly offered a 48-hour pause, but American counterparts, for reasons known only to them but not to us, are totally fixated on the requirements of the seven-day pause,” Interfax quoted Mr. Ryabkov as saying. “A seven-day break is a sufficient period to ensure that terrorist groups can carry out activities to rearm, rest and regroup.”

The U.S. threatened to cut off Syria talks with Russia after a U.S.-Russian cease-fire deal fell apart earlier in September over the bombing of a humanitarian convoy near Aleppo and the launch of a fresh offensive by the Assad regime, which is backed by Russian air power. U.S. officials said the Obama administration was reviving an internal debate over whether to give Syrian rebels more arms.

Mr. Ryabkov described Washington’s reaction to the impasse as an “emotional breakdown.”

A Wednesday briefing by State Department spokesman John Kirby also hit a nerve in Moscow. Mr. Kirby warned that “Russia will continue to send troops home in body bags, and they will continue to lose resources—even, perhaps, more aircraft” if it doesn’t change its position.

In comments on her Facebook page, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said an official reaction would be forthcoming, but added, “Doesn’t it seem that such ventriloquism about ‘bodies in bags’…and the ‘loss of aircraft’ sounds more like ordering a dog to attack, rather than a comment by a diplomat?”

Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a Russian military spokesman, said Russia was “fully ready to continue the dialogue with America” over coordinating efforts to fight extremists in Syria, according to Interfax.

“However, this dialogue must exclude even a hint of threat to our military and Russian citizens,” Gen. Konashenkov added in the Interfax report.

Warplanes and Syrian government helicopters bombed neighborhoods in rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Thursday, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The opposition monitoring group said there were injuries and extensive destruction to buildings. Eastern Aleppo has been hammered by heavy air attacks for the past week after the regime and Russia launched the renewed offensive on the area, where about 300,000 people live. The bombardment has killed hundreds of civilians and put intense strain on the city’s medical and rescue capabilities.

Syrian government forces and allied militias on Thursday recaptured the Handarat Palestinian refugee camp in northern Aleppo, days after losing it to rebels, th Observatory said.

Clashes continued at the camp Thursday morning following a heavy Russian aerial bombardment the previous night, some of the rebel groups fighting there said in a statement.

Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, said Thursday that EU governments were discussing measures that could be taken to respond to the “massacre” in Aleppo, without giving details.

There are “measures that could possibly be taken by the European Union and the international community” over the attacks, she said at a press conference in Brussels. “There are discussions under way.”

A senior EU diplomat said that, for now, the focus is on action at the United Nations Security Council in New York to stop the fighting. However, if that failed, there were options for “putting pressure” on those responsible.