John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov were expected to discuss proposals to share intelligence and increase military co-ordination against Isis and extremist groups in Syria and Iraq. Under that overture, Russian Federation would use its influence to persuade Mr Assad to ground his air force and uphold a ceasefire.
Advertisement
The United Nations called for the protection of people being evacuated from the suburb and said their departure must be voluntary.
Abu Jaafar Al-Homsi, the nom de guerre of a commander in The Martyrs of Islam Brigade, one of the two major factions in the suburb, posted a defiant statement on Twitter, saying the deal had come after “thousands of failed incursion attempts” by pro-government forces.
“The whole world is watching”. The UN has long condemned the regime for using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.
A convoy of Red Crescent ambulances reached Daraya early on Friday, a town located just a few kilometres from President Bashar al-Assad’s Damascus palace and the government-held Mazzeh airbase. Both the army and rebels blamed each other. Surrounded by some meager belongings, they appear to be waiting to be evacuated.
Fighters, who had to use trenches to get in and out of the blockaded town, have agreed to leave for rebel-held areas of northern Syria.
In February, about 4,000 people returned to their south Damascus neighborhood under a local ceasefire deal.
Dr. Mohamad Diaa, a 27-year-old general practitioner in Daraya, said he would likely leave Saturday with the rebels heading to Idlib.
“This is a precious moment for every Syrian”, he added. The soldiers spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Some residents voiced alarm about the latter arrangement, wondering whether they would suffer the same fate as hundreds of activists and rebel fighters who disappeared into government prisons after a similar negotiated surrender in the western city of Homs in 2014.
The UN no longer keeps track of the death toll due to the inaccessibility of many areas and the complications of navigating conflicting statistics put forward by the Syrian government and armed opposition groups.
Members of the Red Crescent and a Syrian army soldier gather at the entrance of a damaged building in the government-controlled part of the besieged town of Daraya on August 26, 2016.
Daraya provided a stark example of the price of rebuffing truce overtures. It was pummeled by government airstrikes, barrel bombs and fighting over the years.
In recent weeks, the army has escalated its use of barrel and incendiary bombs there.
Other rebels who want to reconcile will hand over their weapons and settle their criminal records with the government.
A quarter-million people lived in the suburb before the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011. Residents had described burning plastics to make fuel.
During one weekend, opposition activists said more than 200 people were massacred there. “It’s hard, but we have no choice”, he said.
“Our condition has deteriorated to the point of being unbearable”, he said on Thursday night, ahead of the evacuations.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said a small team of United Nations and Red Cross aid workers would travel to Daraya “to meet with all parties and identify the key issues for the civilians”.
Advertisement
“People are gathering their memories and the few possessions they have left to preserve the memory of the four years of siege, hunger and shelling, and as a reminder to the worldwide community that let them down without any guilt”, he said.
