Lavrov says humanitarian situation in Syria "outrageous"

 
US Secretary of State said on Saturday that he remains hopeful that the Obama administration's effort to broker a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians can succeed.

"I am hopeful and we will keep working on it," Kerry, who is leading the U.S. effort to push the two sides toward a deal, said during remarks at the Munich security conference.               

The Obama administration hopes to complete a 'framework' accord in coming weeks, and will then seek to negotiate a final peace deal by the end of 2014, a U.S. official said this week.

Kerry also said the United States was not being "quixotic" in the effort.          

In turn, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that "Russia can do nothing alone" and urged the U.S. and others to exert their influence on the Syrian opposition.

Lavrov said the humanitarian situation in Syria is "outrageous" but insisted that "we've got to be realistic," arguing that the Syrian government is willing to deliver aid to Homs and deliveries to other cities, such as Aleppo and suburbs of Damascus, should also be an issue.

"I can assure you that we are putting daily pressure on the Syrian government," Lavrov said during a panel discussion at the conference. "It is a very difficult situation and to try to convince the government, which is waging a war, to make some gestures this is a very difficult task."                          

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a conference of global security officials in Munich that he urged Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a meeting on the sidelines "to use their influence to ensure the talks proceed as scheduled on Feb. 10."           

An agreement to allow aid convoys into the central Syrian city of Homs has remained stalled, with the government and opposition accusing each other of holding up the aid delivery into the city, which has been under siege for nearly two years.

On the field:

Syrian military helicopters dropped barrels packed with explosives on rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 13 people including a family trapped in a car, as government forces inched closer to opposition-held areas.
     
The barrel bombs, as the crude weapons are known, wrecked three buildings in the al-Bab area of Aleppo, Hassoun Abu Faisal of the Aleppo Media Center said via Skype. Another local activist and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights corroborated the information.
     
The blasts caused a fuel tanker to explode, setting nearby vehicles alight, including one carrying a family of eight who were trying to flee the area as they heard the approaching helicopters, said Abu Faisal.
     
Photos uploaded by activists showed a man hurling a bucket of water into a building engulfed in flames and black smoke. A video showed men dragging a charred victim out of a smashed building.



REUTERS