Mr Walid Al-Moallem told journalists about the cease-fire plan after meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Mr Sergey Lavrov. Mr Al-Moallem did not divulge details of the plan, which would contain “measures to enforce security” in Aleppo, 310 km from the Syrian capital.
“As a result of our confidence in the Russian position and its role in stopping the Syrian bloodshed, today I submitted to Minister Lavrov a plan for security arrangements that have to do with the city of Aleppo,” said Mr Al-Moallem. “I asked him to make necessary arrangements to guarantee its implementation and specify the zero hour for military operations to cease.”
Mr Al-Moallem said that if Mr Lavrov’s efforts were successful, the cease-fire plan could be used as a model for other parts of Syria, where the conflict between President Bashar Assad’s government and opposition forces has claimed over 100,000 lives.
The meeting between Russian and Syrian sides was part of a final diplomatic push ahead of a peace conference dubbed Geneva 2, which opens Wednesday in Montreux, Switzerland. Yesterday, Mr Lavrov met with the foreign minister of Iran, Syria’s staunchest regional backer. Mr Lavrov strongly urged the West to invite Tehran to participate in next week’s peace conference.
But prospects for the talks, the first between the warring sides in Syria since the start of the conflict, are dim as each party shows no inclination for compromise.
Mr Al-Moallem’s comments came on the same day that Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, will meet in Istanbul to decide whether to participate in the peace talks. The coalition has remained adamant that the ouster of Assad is a condition for any deal, and Mr Al-Moallem’s overtures in Moscow appeared to be an attempt to coax the group into attending the talks. AP
http://www.todayonline.com/world/middle-east/syria-ready-prisoner-exchange-rebels
17/1/14
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Foreign Intervention Still a Threat to Syria – Lavrov...
ReplyDeleteMOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that attempts are continuing to prepare the grounds for a military intervention in war-torn Syria.
“Attempts are made, including through UN mechanisms, to build up tension around the humanitarian situation in Syria in order to create another pretext to push forward the idea of so-called humanitarian corridors, no-fly zones and, eventually, to justify a humanitarian intervention,” Lavrov said.
The minister, who spoke to journalists after a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem, did not specify the forces behind the alleged policy in Syria.
But Moallem directly accused the United States of fostering terrorism in his country.
Syria narrowly avoided US airstrikes after its government was accused last August of using chemical weapons against civilians. President Bashar Assad denied the allegation and blamed the attack on rebel forces fighting to overthrow his regime.
The situation was defused after Russia proposed instead to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal under international control, a plan that is now in progress...........http://en.ria.ru/world/20140117/186627315/Foreign-Intervention-Still-a-Threat-to-Syria--Lavrov.html
17/1/14