Russian air strikes in Syria ‘directly enabling’ Daesh: US 

WASHINGTON: Russian air strikes in and around the city of Aleppo against opponents of the Syrian regime are benefitting the Daesh group, a senior US official charged Wednesday.
“What Russia’s doing is directly enabling ISIL,” Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the coalition fighting the group in Syria and Iraq, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the brutal group Islamic State of Iran and the Levant or ISIL.
In Paris, France’s foreign minister on Wednesday denounced the “terrifying brutality” of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
In a speech at France’s lower house of parliament, Laurent Fabius also said there was “a complicity of Russia and Iran.”
Fabius was speaking a few hours after announcing he has decided to leave the government to head France’s Constitutional Court. He called for a cease-fire in Syria and reiterated France’s position in favor of peace talks.
France is a member of the US-led coalition against the Daesh group.
The French government insisted on Wednesday that a political solution in Syria ultimately requires Assad’s departure.

'Abetting ethnic cleansing'
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, meanwhile, lashed out at the United Nations after it demanded the country open its borders to tens of thousands of more Syrian refugees, accusing it of failing to stop the Russian bombings that have triggered the exodus.
Davutoglu said Wednesday he considered the UN Security Council “two-faced” for telling Turkey to open its borders while not moving “a finger to solve the Syria crisis” or to stop the Russian bombardments.
He also said the Syrian and Russian military operations were an attempt to drive out people who don’t support the government of Assad.
By taking in the refugees that have fled the city of Aleppo, he said Turkey would be indirectly contributing to what he termed as an “ethnic cleansing.”
Davutoglu reiterated that Turkey planned to care for the new wave of refugees at camps on the Syrian side of the border.
Earlier , Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired back at the United Nations for demanding that Turkey open its border to tens of thousands of more Syrian refugees, accusing the world body of being ineffective over the refugee crisis and of not shouldering the burden like Turkey.
A Russian-backed Syrian government offensive around the Syrian city of Aleppo has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing to the Turkish border in recent days. Turkey, already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, is also providing assistance to the new refugees on the Syrian side of the border. But it has not let them in, prompting UNHCR on Tuesday to call on Turkey to admit them.
Erdogan responded Wednesday by saying the UN had not assisted Turkey sufficiently.
He says of the world body “What is your use? ... how many refugees have you taken in?"