International

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian peace talks in Geneva, which were suspended on Wednesday, were pointless while President Bashar Assad's forces and Russia continued their attacks in the country.
     UN envoy Staffan de Mistura halted his efforts to conduct the talks after the Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, advanced against rebel forces north of Aleppo, choking opposition supply lines from Turkey to the city.
     "Russia continues to kill people in Syria. Could there be such a peace gathering? Could there be such peace talks?" Erdogan said in a speech in Peru, in comments published on the presidency website.

In an environment where children are still being killed, such attempts do not have any function apart from making things easier for the tyrant," he said.
     De Mistura announced a three-week pause in the Geneva talks, the first attempt in two years to negotiate an end to Syria's war. Another senior UN official said the Russian escalation was the main reason.
     Turkey is a main backer of the Syrian opposition and has long argued that there can be no peace in Syria without Assad's removal. Erdogan cast doubt on whether the talks would make meaningful progress even if they resumed.