Can Russia and US reach common ground on Syria? The Security Council was set to meet Sunday to discuss the upsurge in violence since the Syrian army announced an offensive to retake the rebel-held east of the devastated city. "What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counterterrorism, it is barbarism," Samantha Power told the Security Council. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin conceded that the surge in violence over the past days meant that “bringing a peace is almost an impossible task now.”

Churkin again laid blame for the failed diplomacy with the United States, accusing Washington of being unable to convince armed opposition groups that it backs on the ground to distance themselves from the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and abide by the cease-fire. The United States, Britain and France, who called the emergency meeting, heaped blame on Moscow for supporting the Syrian offensive which U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura called one of the worst of the 5 1/2-year war. At least 26 civilians were killed in fresh government airstrikes on the contested city of Aleppo, Syrian activists said Sunday, as the United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting on the spiraling violence in Syria but failed to take any action because of deep divisions between Russia and the Western powers. Prior to the start of the U.N. meeting, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russia should be investigated for war crimes following a Monday attack on a Syrian aid convoy that claimed 20 lives. He urged the United States and Russia to go “that extra mile” and save the Sept. 9 cessation of hostilities agreement “at the 11th hour.”

On the sidelines of the meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to force a halt to the hostilities in Aleppo, and he condemned Russia and the Syrian government’s alleged use of bunker busting bombs, which are designed to penetrate underground facilities. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said “dozens of raids” had hit districts of east Aleppo after midnight on Sunday, with many wounded and at least two civilians killed. The U.S. accused Moscow of “barbarism” over the worsening carnage in Aleppo, as Syrian and Russian warplanes pounded the city in one of the heaviest bombing raids of the five-year war.
The United States, United Kingdom, and France seek a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the declining security situation in Aleppo.