US, Russia Point Fingers over Failure to End Syrian Civil War

The United States and Russia have seemingly dropped the appearances of civil diplomacy as each nation accused the other of failing in its goal of restoring peace to war-ravished Syria. After a short ceasefire failed to even allow desperately needed humanitarian goods to be delivered to civilians under siege, the US accused Russia of responsibility for an airstrike that destroyed a 31-truck United Nations convoy laden with food, medicine and necessities while killing 20 civilian aid workers. US Secretary of State John Kerry told the Security Council that a no-fly zone for war planes must be established above the routes that supply trucks travel. His Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, denied American accusations of responsibility for the strike on the convoy, but Kerry responded by saying the Russian-stated trigger for the strike, the alleged presence of Islamist terrorists with the convoy, never happened. Lavrov also argued that the US bore the brunt of the obligation to separate rebel forces from terrorist ISIS and Al-Qa’ida units that the US and Russia are supposed to be targeting together. The Security Council session continues on Thursday.