“We are hopeful but we are not there yet”, Kerry said, adding he would telephone Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later Monday and that de Mistura was headed to Moscow on Tuesday for talks.
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A resident in a rebel-held area said strikes hit north of the city – he said shops and businesses were closed and there had been electricity and water cuts for days.
At least 253 civilians – including 49 children – have died in shelling, rocket fire and air strikes in both sides of the divided city since April 22, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor says. That cease-fire disintegrated in recent weeks, largely over the fighting in and around Aleppo.
Concern has been growing that the fighting in Syria will lead to the complete collapse of a landmark ceasefire between Assad’s regime and non-jihadist rebels agreed in late February.
During his 20-hour visit, Kerry is to meet with de Mistura and the foreign ministers of Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Almost 10 days of bombardments by both the government side and insurgents in the city of Aleppo has killed more than 250 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, confounding hopes of an end to five years of war.
“No, we are not going to put pressure on (Damascus) because one must understand that the situation in Aleppo is part of this fight against the terrorist threat”, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said.
Although Russia insisted talks were under way to include Aleppo in the new truce, on the ground in Syria prospects for peace looked thin.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Syria’s government and the opposition to agree to a fresh ceasefire amid heavy fighting in Aleppo.
A truce was called in February between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and a coalition of rebels but has since begun to break down, particularly in Aleppo.
U.S. and other officials described that initiative, brokered mainly by Russian Federation and the United States as co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group, as a “reinforcement” of the February truce, now largely in tatters, that they hope to extend from Damascus and the capital’s suburbs and the coastal province of Latakia to other areas.
Elsewhere, 16 members of the regime security forces were killed in attacks by the Islamic State group near the Shaer gas field in central Homs province and in the nearby Huweiss region, the Observatory said.
Separately, a vehicle bomb detonated in the rebel-held Salhin neighborhood of Aleppo, appearing to target an Islamic judiciary council.
Diplomatic efforts are underway to stop the escalating violence that has killed almost 300 people there since April 22.
A new round of UN-backed peace talks is set to start on May 10 in Geneva.
The statement, signed by 42 factions from the Free Syrian Army, came as the United States and Russian Federation scrabbled to revive a truce that had curbed fighting for much of the past two months.
On Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was able to deliver 70 trucks of aid to the Syrian towns of Zabadani and Madaya, where there were reports of starvation earlier this year because of a siege imposed by the government and its allies.
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A hospital supported by aid group Doctors Without Borders was hit Wednesday by what activists said was a Russian strike.
