PARIS (Sputnik) — An international meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria Group members was held in the French capital on Saturday. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault as well as his counterparts from Germany, the United States, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy and Jordan participated in the meeting.
"We will not leave Aleppo, we will do everything in our power to find a solution and use all means at our disposal, a ceasefire and humanitarian aid. We hope that this will allow us to proceed to a truce and political settlement talks," Steinmeier told reporters at the close of the meeting.
The foreign minister also slammed Russia, Syria and Iran for allegedly using terrorist presence in the war-torn city as a pretext for continuing an "onslaught" on militant-held areas.
"I want to say the following, the fact that they are there does not excuse the fact that an entire city is being turned to ashes," he said.
Previous internationally mediated attempts at ending violence in Aleppo failed when Syrian forces renewed their offensive against militants over repeated ceasefire violations by the latter. Russia accused the United States of failing to separate terrorists from moderate opposition.
