Stephen Lendman

Ceasefire is more illusion than reality. John Kerry claims it saved “literally tens of thousands of lives…” Half a million Syrian deaths from over five years of US-sponsored conflict reveal the viciousness of Washington’s imperial agenda.

Syrians suffer from endless war, slaughter and destruction. Nothing in prospect suggests resolution. Rhetoric is no substitute for action.

As long as Washington wants puppet governance replacing Syrian sovereign independence, endless war will continue. Countless more victims will perish.

US-supported terrorists continue crossing from Turkey into Syria on a regular basis. According to Syria’s Peace Coordination Center, scores of militants trained and armed in Turkey. “entered Anadan in…northern Aleppo” on May 10 alone.

They brought “vehicles loaded with ammunition and weapons. (Their) artillery units continued to shell…Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ameriyeh neighborhoods.”

Al-Neireb airport was attacked along with the Handarat refugee camp. Fighting in and around Aleppo along with other conflict areas rages daily.

On Tuesday, Iran’s parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Western and regionally supported terrorists are exploiting the ceasefire to regroup and rearm.

He condemned Washington especially for talking peace while supporting endless conflict, backing terrorists called “moderates.”

Since ceasefire began at midnight on February 26, Russia reported 508 breaches through May 10. They continue daily.

Syria complained to UN authorities about active Turkish, Saudi and Qatari support for terrorists, especially in flashpoint areas like Aleppo.

An official statement said they’re systematically undermining peace efforts. Damascus remains determined to defeat terrorism, seek conflict resolution through intra-Syrian dialogue and restore stability to the country.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov blasted Ankara’s “unconstructive role” in so-called peace talks among warring parties. Erdogan wants conflict continued, not resolved.

In the last 24 hours alone, Syrian media reported terrorist snipers shot civilians in Aleppo, shelled neighborhoods in Idlib province, and continued attacks in other areas.

On Tuesday, Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif affirmed the importance of combatting terrorist groups “without leniency,” including efforts to block their sources of funding and weapons.

Putin’s hope for achieving “positive and fundamental changes” remains elusive.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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