The announcement came after Moscow said on Saturday it would not ask the Syrian regime to halt air raids on the war-ravaged city of Aleppo, as it believes they are helping to combat jihadist groups.
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Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper received word from a well-informed source attending the Geneva talks, who only spoke, under the condition of anonymity, that Moscow wants any operation conducted by the US military aircrafts in Syria to first seek approval of Assad’s regime.
The United States is working on “specific initiatives” to reduce violent attacks in Syria, particularly to stop the bloodshed in the province of Aleppo, according to the US State Department.
This figure included around 140 people killed by government-aligned forces in air strikes and shellings of rebel-held areas, including 19 children, it said.
“For the sake of people in Aleppo, we call for all to stop this indiscriminate violence”, Gasser said.
The truce went into effect after midnight on Saturday in Damascus and its suburbs as well as the coastal province of Latakia. He will also be looking at ways in which now suspended peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition can be restarted.
State media outlets said rebel shelling of government-held parts of Aleppo killed one man and wounded others.
Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the situation in Aleppo was part of a fight against a terrorist threat. CALMER IN ALEPPO Both sides have rained bombardments on residential areas for almost 10 days, killing more than 250 people including at least 40 children, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who arrived in Geneva on Sunday for discussions on Syria with the United Nations and his Jordanian and Saudi counterparts, said a ceasefire was needed throughout Syria and hoped to be able to reaffirm the cessation of hostilities after talks in Geneva.
The few people out on the streets watched the sky anxiously for regime aircraft, running for shelter when one launched a new raid.
“It was an air strike by two rockets, heavy rockets from [a] Russian air strike”, he said.
Still, the Observatory says relative calm was prevailing Sunday over Aleppo. Full control would be a huge prize for President Bashar al-Assad.
The U.N. said the escalation of violence in Aleppo revealed a “monstrous disregard for civilian lives”.
Families tried to flee by using eastern Aleppo’s only route along the risky Castello Road, as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) deplored attacks on four Aleppo medical facilities on Friday.
An airstrike on April 27, 2016, that hit al-Quds Hospital and surrounding areas, killed 58 civilians, including medical staff and many patients, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, an opposition search-and-rescue volunteer group.
It said it would last for 24 hours in Eastern Ghouta and Damascus and for 72 hours in areas of the northern Latakia countryside.
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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Government forces have been mobilizing soldiers, equipment and ammunition in preparation for a military action in Aleppo, said Maj.
