Russia slammed for enabling Assad to stay in power

John Kerry said that Russia needs to be a part of the solution and not be distributing weapons and create problems

US Secretary of State John Kerry slammed Russia today for "enabling" Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to stay in power in the war-torn country, after Geneva peace talks broke off without result at the weekend.

"The regime stonewalled, they did nothing except continue to drop barrel bombs on their own people and continue to destroy their own country. And I regret to say they're doing so with increased support from Iran, from Hezbollah and from Russia," Kerry told reporters in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

"Russia needs to be a part of the solution and not be distributing so much more weapons and so much more aid that they're in fact enabling Assad to double-down. Which is creating an enormous problem."

The so-called Geneva II process was initiated by the United States, which backs the Syrian opposition coalition, and Moscow, which supports the government in Damascus.

But the second round of the talks ended in acrimony on Saturday, throwing the future of the negotiations to end the three-year conflict into doubt.