MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Monday, the US State Department announced it was suspending bilateral channels with Russia that were established to sustain a cessation of hostilities agreement in Syria. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a press briefing that Secretary John Kerry had informed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov of the suspension.
"We are not giving up on the Syrian people, we are not abandoning the pursuit of peace, we are not going to leave the multilateral field, we are going to continue to try to find a way forward in order to end this war," Kerry said at an event hosted by the German Marshall Fund in Brussels.
Kerry accused Russia and the government of Syrian president Bashar Assad of rejecting diplomacy and trying to pursue a military victory.
"We acknowledge in sorrow and I have to tell you with a great sense of outrage that Russia has turned a blind eye to Assad’s deplorable use of these weapons of war that he has chosen chlorine gas, barrel bombs against his people," Kerry added.
