Italian FM: Syrian regime wants to destroy Aleppo for political gains

The Syrian regime is to raze Aleppo to the ground in order to achieve political and diplomatic gains, The Anadolu Agency reported the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Paulo Gentiloni saying yesterday.

“The Russian air cover for the military operations of the Syrian government forces in Aleppo is unacceptable,” Gentiloni said.

“The situation in Syrian exceeded the reasonable limit and this makes the continuous diplomatic cooperation between Russian and the United States unnecessary.”

The minister said that from the beginning, Italy has expressed its concerns about the situation, but “it did not negatively judge the Russian intervention.”

He continued: “We said that this could be an opportunity as it would put pressure on the Syrian regime to force it to accept a more open attitude towards negotiations.”

“We have to speak clearly about two points: the first is that we have been witnessing a military offensive by the regime in Aleppo… Unprecedented, arbitrary and unimaginable strikes.”

“The second point is that the Syrian regime is razing Aleppo to the ground in order to achieve political and diplomatic gains.”