US Secretary of State John Kerry attends a news conference at the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Vientiane, Laos July 26, 2016. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu called it a large scale humanitarian operation.
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The government completely closed the main road into the rebel-held areas on July 17, effectively besieging them and 300,000 residents.
The European Union on Thursday also called for immediate humanitarian pause in fighting in eastern Aleppo to allow the delivery of medical aid to the Syrian city, ravaged by a civil war, which entered its sixth year.
“There has been a (rebel) withdrawal, but no one has surrendered”, Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim group told Reuters.
“On behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, today, (we will) start a large-scale humanitarian operation together with the Syrian government to help civilians in Aleppo”, Shoigu said in televised comments.
Vladimir Putin has promised rebel fighters a safe “way-out” if they surrender after the Russian-backed Syrian army surrounded the war-torn city of Aleppo. Both have fighters in Aleppo.
Russia, an ally to the Assad regime, said it would help set up the corridors.
The U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said “no one can be forced to flee, by any specific route or to any particular location”. In cooperation with the Syrian authorities, three safe corridors will be opened. Syrian TV said fliers have already been dropped on rebel-held areas of Aleppo urging people to take the government’s offer of humanitarian corridors.
“It is not realistic to expect countries like Turkey or Saudi Arabia – never mind the United States – to first let the rebels lose Aleppo and then rally the force needed for them to take it back”.
“Definitely not. We will not surrender ourselves to the criminals”.
Medical posts and food handouts would be provided along the routes intended for civilians and fighters who surrender, Shoigu said.
Philip Luther, director of Amnesty’s Middle East and North Africa program, said the corridors were “not a substitute for allowing impartial humanitarian relief for civilians who remain in opposition-held areas of the city or other besieged areas, many of whom will be skeptical about government promises”.
There have been several presidential amnesty offers in recent years. “By disavowing its ties to al Qaeda – which, incidentally, it did with al Qaeda’s blessing – Nusra has made it harder to isolate it from more moderate groups, some of whose members may join it now because it’s more powerful than some of the groups they belong to now”, said the official. “It’s impossible for people here to go to regime areas”.
The reprieve also includes any rebel who frees a hostage, according to the decree text.
“Everyone carrying arms… and sought by justice…is excluded from full punishment if they hand themselves in and lay down their weapons”, it said.
The offer is largely seen by opposition fighters as a publicity stunt and psychological warfare against the rebels.
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Analysts say that losing Aleppo would be a major blow for the armed opposition and could signal a turning point in the conflict, which began in 2011 with the brutal crackdown of anti-government protests.
