Syria prepared to suspend Aleppo bombing, says UN envoy

As fighting surged north of Aleppo yesterday, United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura said the Syrian government was prepared to suspend aerial bombardment and artillery shelling of insurgent-held areas of the city for six weeks from a date to be announced in Damascus.

At least 70 Syrian army soldiers and 86 insurgents from al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, other fundamentalist and western-supported factions have died in clashes during a government offensive to cut off supply lines for insurgent-held quarters of Aleppo, according to the Britain-based opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Syrian army, reinforced by Lebanese Hizbullah fighters, has also launched an offensive in the south.

While Mr de Mistura pledged to “engage the opposition” with a request “to halt mortar and rocket fire” into pro-government districts in Aleppo during this period, the western-backed expatriate opposition National Coalition called for a detailed proposal from the envoy.

“The Assad regime’s compliance with any such proposal will be judged by actions, not words,” said coalition UN representative Najib Ghadbian. “Thus far [its] actions have been only brutality and terror.”

The coalition has no control over insurgent forces on the ground.

Mr de Mistrua put the proposal to a closed-door session of the UN Security Council on Tuesday following discussions in the Syrian capital with President Bashar al-Assad.

“We’ll see if the freeze holds and can be replicated,” he said. “The purpose is to spare as many civilians as possible while we try to find a political solution.”

He hopes to dispatch a UN team to Aleppo and return to Damascus with the aim of visiting Aleppo personally.

Mr de Mistura adopted a pragmatic view of the prospects of his Aleppo initiative.

“Every time there is a proposal of a ceasefire . . . history has proven that there [can be escalation by one side] to take a better position. I fear that could be the case,” he said.

“Meanwhile, we will also pursue the political process which [consultations in] Cairo and Moscow have generated and build on it with a UN initiative.”

The political process should be “based on the Geneva communique with a pragmatic approach that can produce results”, he added.

Late in January, representatives from the Syrian government and opposition figures took part, in Moscow, in talks about talks and are expected to attend a second round at the end of this month or early in March.

The 2012 Geneva communique called for an end to hostilities and the establishment of a transitional authority that would assume all political power. This has been construed as meaning Dr Assad would stand down, which he has refused to do.

Last autumn, Mr de Mistura put forward a plan to “freeze” fighting in Aleppo to permit humanitarian access but the proposal failed to secure support.

Last Friday he infuriated the opposition and insurgents by saying Dr Assad was “part of the solution”, a remark he clarified by saying the government “should partake in any solution to the reduction of violence on the civilian population.”

The UN estimates 220,000 Syrians have died during four years of conflict.