UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged Russia and the US to put Syria’s ceasefire back on track and stressed that new truce arrangements in place for two areas must be extended to Aleppo.
Heavy air strikes hit rebel-held east Aleppo in the early hours of yesterday, days after the US and Russia announced plans to reinforce the February 27 truce in Latakia and Damascus regions.
Ban is “profoundly concerned about the dangerous escalation of fighting in and around Aleppo and the intolerable suffering, counted in mounting deaths and destruction, it is causing among civilians,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The UN chief noted the re-launch of the cessation of hostilities in Damascus and Latakia and stressed “the need to expand these arrangements to other parts of Syria, with a special urgency for Aleppo.”
The appeal came on the eve of talks between Ban’s envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on the collapsing ceasefire.
He called on all international actors, in particular the US and Russia “to redouble their efforts in support of the Syrian parties to put the cessation of hostilities back on track.”
“The collapse of the cessation of hostilities will only bring more violence, death and destruction while further weakening efforts to find a negotiated solution to this brutal war,” said Ban’s spokesman.