Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Calls for Saving Aleppo before it is Too Late | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55363182
Caption:

A Syrian child who fled with his family from rebel-held areas in the city of Aleppo. (AFP)


Beirut- As the Syrian regime deployed on Thursday additional forces ahead of a push in the more populated neighborhoods of east Aleppo, calls emerged to save the city before it was too late.

A global coalition of 223 nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, called on Thursday for saving Aleppo and warned from a “humanitarian disaster beyond description.”

In a statement received by Asharq Al-Awsat, the global coalition called upon U.N. member states to request an Emergency Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly to demand an end to all unlawful attacks on civilians in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.

Executive director of the Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect Dr. Simon Adams said: “Aleppo is about to become another Srebrenica or Rwanda.”

Ahmed Tarekji, the president of the Syrian American Medical Society, said the international community was turning a blind eye to the latest developments in Aleppo.

Human Rights Watch also documented that the Russian-Syrian regime bombing campaign against Aleppo between September and October 2016 had killed more than 440 civilians, including more than 90 children.

Meanwhile, Ankara hosted on Thursday talks between the Syrian opposition and Moscow in the presence of Turkish representatives to discuss a military ceasefire in east Aleppo.

Reports said conferees reached an initial agreement stipulating the withdrawal of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham fighters from Aleppo to Idlib through safe corridors in return for a ceasefire and the delivery of aid to besieged areas.

Member of the Syrian Coalition Ahmad Ramadan uncovered on Thursday that Turkey had suggested some ideas linked to a complete ceasefire, and keeping Aleppo under the supervision of the local council protected by the Free Syrian Army, in addition to preventing Iranian and Assad-linked militias to enter the city or attack any of its areas.

Ramadan told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Opposition factions and the Russians approved that proposal, which was rejected by the Iranians and the regime that kept shelling the city under Russian cover.”

“This shows there is an operation of exchanging roles between those parties,” he said.