On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for Syria’s floundering cessation of hostilities to be restored, particularly in Aleppo where violence has escalated in recent days. He says “the test is Aleppo now”.
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“We’ve seen an overall decrease in violence in those areas even though there are some reports of continued fighting in some locations”, Kerry said.
He added: “We are determined to reaffirm the cessation of hostilities across Syria and will continue expanding this effort”. He said it would be an “important basis” for resuming peace talks in Geneva.
Attempts at a dialogue with the Syrian government have reached an impasse and no progress in ending the civil war is possible without the departure of President Bashar al-Assad, the coordinator for the Syrian opposition said on Wednesday.
A rebel source also said that despite intermittent firing across the city’s main front lines, fighting had subsided and no army shelling of residential areas had been heard.
The German foreign ministry said it is hosting the U.N. Syria talks Wednesday in order to pave the way for a new round of talks in Geneva.
The officials say a formal announcement of the deal is expected later Wednesday.
Nevertheless, in Aleppo new explosions could be heard.
Steinmeier said in a statement that “if the cease-fire is kept to, that will be far more than a major relief for people in Aleppo”.
Rebels fighting in Aleppo did not immediately react to the news.
Washington and Moscow are working together to include Aleppo in a so-called “regime of silence” – a freeze in fighting – aimed at bolstering a broader, but now crumbling truce in place since February 27.
Kerry confirmed these strikes, but said the joint US-Russian ceasefire monitoring centre which is being set up in Geneva would redouble its efforts.
Military means cannot secure a settlement to the Syrian conflict, and instead it only can cause greater unrest and disaster, said a Chinese envoy here on Wednesday.
The UN’s top political affairs officer Jeffrey Feltman and Stephen O’Brian, its aid chief, told the Security Council that those responsible for the hospital attacks and starvation sieges in rebel-held eastern Aleppo should face trial for war crimes.
But Egeland said the response from Damascus was “not good news”, granting access to only a quarter of the people requested.
Germany has accepted more than one million refugees past year, a lot of them were Syrians fleeing the war in their country that has claimed the lives of at least 270,000 people and displaced millions.
In some battles there and elsewhere, Western and Arab-backed militants have fought alongside those swearing allegiance to al-Qaida, making it hard to determine which Syrian government offensives or Russian airstrikes constitute violations.
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That part of the city is under rebel control.
