DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Monday that the U.N. envoy’s proposal to implement a cease-fire in the embattled northern city of Aleppo was “worth studying.”
The envoy, Staffan de Mistura, first raised the idea of small-scale, localized and negotiated truces in Syria at the United Nations in New York late last month. The proposal would involve freezing the fighting in certain areas to allow for humanitarian aid and local steps as part of a push toward a wider peace in Syria’s 3 ½-year civil war that has killed more than 200,000.
His plan drew an immediate backlash from Syrian media outlets considered mouthpieces for the government, which warned that the veteran diplomat was being “hasty” and overstepping his authority.
On Monday, de Mistura met with Assad in Damascus for talks that touched on the idea of a local cease-fire in Aleppo, Syria’s former commercial hub and the last major city where rebels still hold large areas as they battle government forces.
“President Assad … considered that the initiative of de Mistura was worth studying and trying to work on to achieve its goals of returning security to the city of Aleppo,” said the statement, published by the state-run SANA news agency.