Canada will help deliver humanitarian aid in Syria if ceasefire fails: Dion

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Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion says Canada will help in humanitarian air drops of food and medical supplies to besieged areas of Syria if the teetering ceasefire can't be turned into a comprehensive truce.

After meeting in Vienna on Tuesday, Mr. Dion and other foreign ministers of the 18-country International Syria Support Group renewed calls for a cessation of hostilities in Syria and the restart of peace talks.

The United States and Russia are leading efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire between opposition rebel forces and troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and set a June 1 deadline for the resumption of humanitarian aid to areas cut off from the outside world.

Mr. Dion said Canada would participate in the air drops by supplying Canadian-built parachutes and $3-million through the World Food Programme.

"I insisted on the necessity to be strong on air drops of food and medication if we cannot help the population in difficulty," Mr. Dion said in a telephone interview with The Globe and Mail from Vienna. "We provide the parachutes and we provide mostly the money to make it possible."

This was Mr. Dion's first meeting of the International Syria Support Group since the United States and Russia invited Canada to join the talks, an invitation the Liberal government credits to Mr. Dion's re-engagement with the Kremlin.

The meeting was led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but the group failed to set a date for the next round of peace talks.

The United States is hoping to have a framework for a political transition in place by Aug. 1 but a stumbling block is the fate of Mr. al-Assad. He has gained back territory as a result of Russian and Iranian military support and has shown no sign he is prepared to step down.

UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva ended last month without any progress after the rebel opposition delegation walked out, complaining of attacks from Russia and Mr. al-Assad's forces and problems in delivering humanitarian aid.

Mr. Dion said there is no immediate need for Mr. al-Assad to leave if this can spur peace negotiations, but he said the Syrian dictator can't be part of a transitional government.

"Canada's position is that it is very difficult to see a future with Assad, but the priority is to have negotiations between Syrians talking again," he said.

Mr. Dion said he made several proposals in the meeting, calling for the suspension of death sentences ordered by the Syrian government, the handover of names of all detainees in Syria to the United Nations and the release of all women and children held in captivity.

He also made the case to end the use of barrel bombs – which are filled with shrapnel and sometimes chemicals – that are being dumped in villages and city neighbourhoods by Mr. al-Assad's war planes.

"They have no military purpose," he said. "They are very dangerous for civilians. I insisted that the barrel bombs be banned."

Mr. Dion will travel to Brussels on Wednesday for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in which they are expected to discuss financial support for Afghanistan's security forces up to 2020.