The US authorities accused the Russian side in the assignment of merit of the international coalition in Syria. Moscow, in turn, described the statements as tactless.
White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said Russia had lost credibility by "making a series of commitments without any indication they were committed to following them," accusing Russia and its Syrian regime allies of trying "to bomb civilian populations into submission."
Russia claims to be fighting ISIL, but hasn't accomplished "a significant counter-ISIL objective in more than seven months and they have been reduced to trying to claim credit for successful US operations," Earnest said.
There is "nothing more for the US and Russia to talk about" in Syria, Earnest said. "Everybody's patience with Russia has run out.”
Russia's United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said one should not over-dramatize the character of the Russian-US contradictions in the global context, describing Earnest's statement as tactless. “I think you are dramatizing the nature of our disagreements with the US,” Churkin said, adding that both Russia and the US had managed to work together on the Syrian conflict for a long time and he hoped this cooperation could be restored.. “I hope there will not be a new Cold War,” he added.
Earlier the US has suspended all Syria ceasefire talks with Russia, shattering any chance of a deal which had been billed as the war-torn country’s last chance.
"This is not a decision that was taken lightly," the US state department spokesman John Kirby said, but the White House’s patience had finally “run out”.
Kirby said the Russian and US militaries will continue to use a communications channel set up to ensure their forces do not get in each others' way in the skies above Syria.
The deputy dean of the Faculty of Global Economics and International Affairs of the Higher School of Economics of the National Research University, Andrey Suzdaltsev, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, expressed confidence that such a difficult situation between the two countries will continue at least until December. "There will be difficult times both before the US presidential elections and in the weeks after them. But the Russian side should take advantage of this situation, because the US foreign policy will be literally paralyzed in a week. At this time, we will be able to achieve a decisive change in the configuration of powers in Syria," he said.
"A year ago we were convinced that our intervention will not only ensure the preservation of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but will also stabilize the situation, eliminate the military threat and will allow us to have a foothold in the Middle East. Now we are convinced that this war is endless, the masks were dropped, and our supposed partners are acting according to the old Afghan scheme of bad guys fighting with even more ugly guys. This is a hopeless situation. The only chance to end crisis is to agree with the US on a joint struggle against ISIL, and until there is no such agreement, we will never be able to achieve peace in Syria," Andrey Suzdaltsev expects.
