After last week’s deal in neighbouring Daraya, government troops took control of a completely empty suburb – once home to a quarter of a million people.
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“The task force failed the people of Darayya, we all failed the people of Darayya, I failed them and it is really sad to think of what they went through over these years”, he said.
The U.N. Security Council will hold a high-level meeting on September 21 to take stock of the Syrian conflict and discuss prospects for ending the fighting, which is now in its sixth year.
Since launching the offensive in the northern Hama countryside early this week, rebels have captured a number of towns and villages.
Syria’s government secured a deal to restore its authority over another rebellious Damascus suburb on Thursday while Syrian rebels captured new ground in a lightning advance on the central city of Hama and suspected government airstrikes killed 25 civilians in the surrounding province.
Turkey’s 10-day-old offensive, its first major incursion into Syria since the war started five years ago, has alarmed the West.
“In my opinion we’re gradually heading in the right direction and I don’t exclude that we’ll be able to agree on something in the near future and present our agreements to the worldwide community”, Putin said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Mr.de Mistura had earlier said that the outcome of the ongoing US-Russia talks would affect the course of taskforces’ discussions.
Stephen O’Brien said after a border trip on Friday that 75 percent of those stranded are women and children with a “very real need” for food, water and shelter. It follows closely after the full evacuation of the nearby rebel-held suburb Daraya, which was widely criticized as a forced displacement.
Soldiers searched their luggage as they left, and checked their names against a list.
State media said 303 residents of Daraya were leaving Moadimayet al-Sham and would be taken to Hrajeleh, a regime-held district, for processing.
“I’ve been taking refuge here for three years and I hope that life in the reception centre will be better than here”, said Roueida, a mother of seven, as she left.
Mr Ibrahim said other “settlement” deals with rebel-held Damascus suburbs were now under discussion, and urged other gunmen to lay down their arms.
At a press conference in Geneva, the United Nations envoy to Syria warned of Syrian government’s use of siege tactics to force evacuations of residents from specific areas, citing the example of Daraya, a neighboring suburb of Moadamiyeh from where residents were evacuated after it was surrendered to the government.
The UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura voiced concern that the Daraya agreement was part of a larger strategy by the government to empty rebel enclaves and that it may soon be extended to other areas.
Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that he and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov were close to ironing out yet another peace initiative.
Van Bohemen told reporters at U.N. headquarters in NY on Thursday that the council session on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual ministerial meetings will be chaired by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who has invited leaders of the 14 other council nations to attend.
Negotiations are underway between the government and rebels, as well as the local council in Moadimayet al-Sham, for the evacuation of fighters in the town, sources involved in the talks told AFP.
“If Daraya was a shock, Al Waer is 75,000 people”, he pointed out.
The army will take control of the town.
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Mohammed Raja, another member of the committee, said the process was expected to begin before the Eid al-Adha holiday, around September 12, and continue for several months. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
