“On behalf of UN Secretary General, a 48-hours truce should be declared in Aleppo as a first step”, de Mistura said at a press conference in Geneva”, adding that the working group concerned in the cessation of hostilities agreement will discuss this issue today.
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“The Russian defence ministry has laid out several conditions for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting”, said Al Jazeera’s Reza Sayah, reporting from the Gaziantep on the Turkish-Syrian border.
Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial and industrial centre, has been divided roughly in two since 2012, with the government controlling the west and rebels the east. That suggests Russian Federation is not ready to back an indefinite weekly pause in violence.
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The Russian defense ministry added, “Specific dates and times will be determined after information regarding the readiness of humanitarian convoys is received from the United Nations, as well as confirmation of safety guarantees from American partners”.
Reports say the airstrikes on Qaterji has overall left eight casualities, which included five children.
Omran was rescued with his three siblings, aged one, six and 11, along with his mother and father from the rubble of their destroyed block of flats.
“He’s five years old, he’s as old as the Syrian war – he’s probably not known a single day of peace in his life and he deserves that”.
Fighting has escalated in recent weeks, with rebels severing the government’s main route to the west of the city.
The situation on the ground, though, has not immediately improved, residents told Al Jazeera.
On Thursday, de Mistura said that aid convoys have not reached Syria’s besieged areas with desperately needed food and medicine for the past month.
Further explaining why he adjourned the humanitarian taskforce meeting, he said that it was to give a chance to prove that these meetings are indeed, as they have been in the past, meaningful for the Syrian people.
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“The EU and its member states call for.an immediate halt to the fighting in Aleppo to allow medical evacuations, deliveries of aid and repairing of essential water and electricity infrastructure”, EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said in a statement.
