Moscow, SANA – The Russian Foreign Ministry said the US decision to suspend contacts with Russia on Syria is “regrettable’.

The Ministry said in a statement on Monday the USA State Department’s statement on the unilateral curtailment of joint work to resolve the crisis in Syria is a cause of deep disappointment.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Washington has not fulfilled its obligations of the agreement and now tries to blame Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry added that in the last days there were painstaking efforts aimed at normalizing the situation around Aleppo as the armed terrorist

groups sabotaged the former cessation of hostilities agreement, while the American side did not support the willingness of Russia to declare in this area a new 72-hour “humanitarian pause” in hostilities.

The statement said it is noted that the Syrian government was ready to take this step, and three weeks ago started to withdraw, but Washington could not then and would not now ensure that the same is done by the “opposition” groups under its control, and that it is not known whether that is because the US is really indifferent to the humanitarian needs of the Syrian people, exploiting this theme purely for political

purposes, or because it is simply not able to influence the “opposition” groups.

The Ministry reiterated that the United States never exerted real pressure on Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization, adding that Washington decision reflects the failure of Barack Obama administration to fulfill a key condition for continuing cooperation.

H. Zain/ H. Said