Moscow: The Russian president on Wednesday offered a new unilateral humanitarian pause for Syria’s war-ravaged Aleppo, urging rebels to use it to leave the city’s eastern, besieged districts. The Syrian rebels quickly dismissed Vladimir Putin’s initiative.
Putin has ordered that the aid corridors — which Russia had opened earlier — also be open on Friday, for longer hours, from 9am to 7pm, along with two new exit routes for the rebels to leave eastern Aleppo “in order to prevent a senseless loss of life,” the defence ministry said.
One exit leads to the Turkish border, the other to the city of Idlib, according to the ministry.
Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov said he was “calling on all leaders of armed groups directly to cease hostilities and leave Aleppo with their weapons.”
Gerasimov also said the rebel offensive on the Syrian government-held districts in western Aleppo, which was launched last week, has failed to break through the siege.
“They have no chance to break out of the city,” he added.
Rebel groups in Aleppo dismissed Russia’s latest offer, with one of the groups describing it as a media stunt for “public consumption.”
Yasser Al Youssuf, a spokesman for the Nour Al Din Al Zinki rebel group, said Russia “is not serious” and its latest initiatives “don’t concern us.” He added that the Russian leader’s comments do not reflect the reality on the ground.
“We need an international commission to check the Russian lies,” Al Youssuf said.
Molhem Ekaidi, deputy commander of Fastaqim group, one of the major rebel factions fighting inside Aleppo, also accused the Russians of lying. “The [Russian] shelling and crimes continue and their planes have not left the skies of Aleppo,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said other countries involved in Syrian peace negotiations have “sabotaged” the process by backing militant groups intent on toppling Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.
“Unfortunately on many occasions, efforts for a political resolution have been sabotaged. That is not in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions. Some parties are backing extremists aimed at removing the Assad regime,” Lavrov said.
“If those resolutions had been carried out in an honest way, the situation in Syria would have already improved.”
Lavrov met with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, as part of a friendship initiative between the two countries that included multiple cultural exchanges and a visit to Greece in May by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Over the weekend, the Russian navy destroyer Smetlivy reached Greece’s main port of Piraeus before sailing onto the east Mediterranean to join warships backing government forces in Syria’s five-year-old civil war.
“We have seen that after every humanitarian pause, the opportunity is used by the terrorists to strengthen their manpower and weaponry,” Lavrov said.
Athens is keen to maintain close ties with fellow-Orthodox Christian Russia, despite its participation in EU sanctions against Moscow, and a gas pipeline project designed to limit Russia’s regional energy dominance.
Russia is one of Greece’s main trading partners, but business has been hit by the sanctions and a drop in commodity prices.
