Assad Says Ready to Study U.N. Plan to 'Freeze' Aleppo Fighting

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Syrian President Bashar Assad said Monday he was ready to study a U.N. plan to "freeze" fighting in the northern city of Aleppo, a statement from his office said.

"President Assad has been informed by (U.N. envoy Staffan) de Mistura of the main points of his initiative," said the statement issued after the two men held talks in Damascus.

"(Assad) said it was worthy of study and that work on it is needed... in order to re-establish security in Aleppo," it added.

It is De Mistura's second visit to Syria since he was appointed peace envoy in July.

On October 30, De Mistura put forward an "action plan" for Syria that proposed to "freeze" fighting in local areas to allow for aid deliveries and to lay the groundwork for peace talks.

According to the Syrian presidency Facebook page, Assad emphasized "the importance of Aleppo", which rebels and the army have been fighting over since July 2012.

State news agency SANA, meanwhile, quoted De Mistura as saying he was determined to ensure that his mission succeeds.

The envoy had previously said Aleppo would be a "good candidate" to become a "freeze" zone.

The city has been split into rebel- and army-held areas since a major insurgent offensive began there.

Since December 2013, regime warplanes have carried out near daily air raids targeting rebel-held districts of what was once Syria's economic capital, reportedly killing mostly civilians, defying a UN Security Council ban on such strikes.

Waddah Abd Rabbo, editor of pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper, said Damascus supports any "plan that can save lives, but such a plan should not be accepted by one side and rejected by the other".

Abd Rabbo told AFP: "The ball is in De Mistura's court. He must convince the rebels, and above all the countries that support them."

He singled out Turkey, "which allows weapons and terrorists into Aleppo" across its border with Syria.

Since the start of the anti-Assad revolt in 2011, the regime has branded all of its opponents -- both peaceful and armed -- as "terrorists", and has blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey for the violence that has engulfed the country.

De Mistura's predecessors Lakhdar Brahimi and Kofi Annan tried several times but failed to implement a ceasefire in Syria. Two rounds of talks between the regime and the exiled opposition earlier this year brought no result.

Syria's war has killed more than 195,000 people and forced upwards of half the population to flee their homes.

Comments 12
Thumb Mystic 10 November 2014, 17:51

Assad is ready for dialogue, but the takfiris will never do that. The deaths of the civilians, are entirely the fault of the takfiris.

Missing idris_gray 10 November 2014, 18:18

Yeah assad's idea of dialogue is: "surrender completely and we will go back to the staus quo of me controlling everything."

Missing ArabDemocrat.com 10 November 2014, 18:43

Mystic is right 'The deaths of the civilians, are entirely the fault of the takfiris." After all who is the most criminal actor in Syria? Who is the one that is dropping barrels of explosive on Aleppo?

Missing ArabDemocrat.com 10 November 2014, 18:44

And who broke the terms of Geneva I - the process that could have actually solved the Syrian problem except that monstrous regime.

Thumb ex-fpm 10 November 2014, 17:59

The US strategy against Isis is working – for Assad
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/06/us-strategy-against-isis-working-well-assad-syria

Missing idris_gray 10 November 2014, 18:25

Lol, since when have the baathists been open for dialogue? The leaders of the Syrian National Council (opposition) were open for dialogue since day one yet the assadists have never been willing to compromise or share power at all. They prefer to kill and destroy.

Missing idris_gray 10 November 2014, 18:35

''I visited Assad's Syria for the first time in 1973, just before the October War,'' Dall'Oglio continued. ''I came back with the impression of a population subjected to a powerful nationalist propaganda machine mobilised to the maximum for anti-Israeli ends. For many reasons I felt solidarity towards the suffering of Palestinians and Arabs in general - as I still do today.....However, that attitude of totalitarian manipulation of information was repugnant to me even then. I knew that it was a dictatorship and I harboured no illusions as to respect for human rights of the man in power in the country.'' ''I was perfectly aware of an unceasing, silent massacre being conducted in Syrian jails, lagers and gulags,'' the Jesuit priest who lived in the Mar Musa Monastery in Syrian for over thirty years until his expulsion a year ago wrote."

Missing idris_gray 10 November 2014, 18:36

''I have always said,' he continued, ''that political Islam is a large-scale regional reality and that there is no need to sacrifice democracy, civil rights and self-determination of the population to continue to suppress the Islamist plan, whether this be of Salafis or the Muslim Brotherhood or groups that are moderate to varying degrees.'' Father Paolo also wrote of the ''legitimacy of just war, the right to armed defence and the duty to protect countries and populations prey to violent internal or external attacks.'' ''The regime's decision was clear since 2010,'' he wrote: ''dialogue was prohibited'' and ''in the end my residence permit was taken away. I stayed in Syria without any residence permit and therefore could not travel...

Missing idris_gray 10 November 2014, 18:38

...Meanwhile, however, the Arab Spring had begun''. The priest wrote that he had hoped Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad might bring in radical reform, but bore witness to the fact that ''since March 2011 it has been clear that the strategy of total repression had been chosen''. ''Democrats have been tore into pieces in prison, Islamists are criminalised and pushed towards creating a terrorist movement of the sort theorised by the regime.'' Dall'Oglio warned that ''let's imagine for a second that, even with the decisive help of Christians, the regime manages to crush the revolution. We can predict there will be some 500,000 dead and 10 million refugees. What remains of our Christian testimony? Even if Christians were to return - an unlikely prospect - to Syria, what would we go back to doing after having accepted such a genocide?'' Father Paolo Dalloglio

Thumb Mystic 10 November 2014, 21:47

Now now, stop acting like women gentlemen. Everybody knows Assad is better than the alternative, which means the takfiris.

Default-user-icon realy? (Guest) 11 November 2014, 13:01

Wow acting like woman you say? and what is that exactly? when will you religous nuts realise that your gospel is not bought by every person out there? When will you realise that men and women are equal in this world and God (if you beleive in him truly) did not make them so different but that was something bigots came out with.

Wow and you call yourself a man?

Thumb thepatriot 11 November 2014, 14:17

Now now myssy... stop acting like there is no other alternative...