Dion leads UN effort to ramp up pressure on Russia, Syria over Aleppo
OTTAWA — Canada and Russia traded barbs at the United Nations on Thursday as Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion led calls for an end to the bloody conflict in Syria.
The exchange came during a special session of the UN General Assembly, organized by Canada and supported by more than 70 countries, in which Canada hoped to ratchet up pressure on Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad to end the five-year-old war.
Dion blasted the Security Council’s failure to end the conflict before turning his sights towards Russia and Assad. The two have a responsibility to protect civilians, he warned, before calling them “belligerents” to the conflict.
Dion called for an immediate end to airstrikes in the city of Aleppo, where Russian and Syrian government forces have conducted an unprecedented number of airstrikes in recent weeks. And he brushed aside a “pause” in the bombing instituted by Russia earlier this week.