ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — US President Donald Trump has called for an "immediate end" to aggression in Syria, specifically pointing the finger at the Baathist regime of Bashar al-Assad.
"The President put the Assad regime on notice some time ago, and we’re continuing to echo that message. When I said that we call for an immediate end to these offensive operations, we mean it," said White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders.
The regime's primary backers have been Russia and Iran.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a "humanitarian pause" for Tuesday in Eastern Ghouta from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. He also called for similiar pauses at at-Tanf and Rubikan on the Jordanian borders.
Last week, there were 500 reported deaths in Eastern Ghouta, an opposition-held pocket outside of the Syrian capital.
"Look, Syria is terrorizing hundreds of thousands of civilians with airstrikes, artillery, rockets, and a looming ground attack. The regime’s use of chlorine gas is — as a weapon — only intensifies this," Sanders said.
The UN general-secretary has described Ghouta as “hell on earth.”
The UN Security Council passed a ceasefire resolution on Saturday with Ghouta being the focus. Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said the ceasefire applied to "the whole of Syria including Afrin."
Turkey, which supports rebels opposed to the Syrian government in Damascus, launched an assault on Afrin, the northwesternmost region in Syria on January 20, effectively pushing Kurdish forces out of the countryside and into Afrin city.
"The United States calls for an immediate end to offensive operation, and urgent access for humanitarian workers and badly needed humanitarian aid," Sanders added.
The United States officially ended its covert operations aimed to overthrow the regime in 2017; instead, calling for fair and free elections for all Syrians, observed by the United Nations.
Assad is "on notice" but Sanders wouldn't specify what actions the United States was willing to take.
US forces have a presence east of the Euphrates and at the at-Tanf base on the Syria-Iraq-Jordan border.
"As the President said, he’s not going to lay out a specific calendar," Sanders said after being pressed for a timeline. “He thinks that’s a big mistake when it comes putting pressure on and negotiating things.”
The Syrian conflict began in 2011. The UN estimates half of the Syrian people have been displaced, while the Syrian Network for Human Rights has reported 500,000 people have been killed.
