Lavrov backs plan to ‘escort’ rebels out of Aleppo
October 7, 2016, 5:16 pm

De Mistura made an impassioned plea to both Russia and the US to spare the civilians of Aleppo further carnage [Xinhua]

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that his government would persuade the Syrian government to accept the plan.

De Mistura said he would escort the Al-Qaeda linked Al Nusra fighters out of the besieged city to spare the 275,000 civilians trapped there any further death and destruction.

His appeal came just hours before the Security Council met for a second day to discuss a new French initiative to cease hostilities.

Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that another hospital was destroyed in Aleppo and called for those responsible to be held accountable for what could be war crimes.

“They are beyond the accidental now. Way beyond, years beyond the accidental. This is a targeted strategy to terrorise civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives,” he told reporters in Washington.

Meanwhile, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the Duma, has ratified a deal with Syria to keep the Russian air force in the country for an indefinite period of time.

The agreement, which was first signed in August 2015 and came at the request of Damascus, was submitted to the Duma a year later and deliberated for nine weeks before approval given on Friday.

“Armaments, ammunition, equipment and materials necessary for the fulfillment of appropriate tasks by the Russian air group, for ensuring security and vital functions of its personnel, are delivered to Syria without any charges or tariffs. Russian air group personnel freely cross the border, and are not subject to any checks by Syrian border control or customs authorities,” the agreement says according to the Russian news agency TASS.

The ratification comes as Russia continues to blame the US for the collapse of the most recent ceasefire.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said that while Moscow was able to persuade its Syrian allies to cease military operations as well as air raids, the US-backed Islamist rebels used this period of relative calm to regroup and launch attacks.

He said Russia had fulfilled its end of the bargain.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies