(L-R): Boris Johnson, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development of the French Republic; U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry; and Paolo Gentiloni, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Republic. — Photo by Alonso Nichols, Tufts University

By Charles Lane

Secretary of State John Kerry hosted a ministerial meeting at Tufts University Saturday with his counterparts from the European Union, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy to discuss a broad range of global issues.

During his opening remarks, Kerry highlighted the situation in Syria saying, “What is happening in Aleppo today is unacceptable. It is beyond the pale. If people are serious about wanting a peaceful outcome to this war, then they should cease and desist bombing innocent women and children, cease cutting off water and laying siege in medieval terms to an entire community, and work with the international community in order to be able to bring peace to people who are starving – literally starving, but also starving for the possibilities of a future without chlorine dropping on them out of the sky, barrel bombs, and indiscriminate bombing. And Russia needs to set an example, not a precedent – an unacceptable precedent, I might add, for the entire world.”