Moallem: Aleppo proposal a response to Kerry's call for local cease-fires
In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Walid Moallem said he proposed a plan for ending military operations in Aleppo last week in response to US Secretary of State John Kerry's appeal for a cease-fire there.
MONTREUX, Switzerland — Walid Moallem, Syria’s minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, said his proposal last week to halt military operations in Aleppo was in direct response to an appeal from US Secretary of State John Kerry for a “localized cease-fire” in Aleppo.
“I presented a plan for ending the military and security operation in Aleppo city, and I still wait for the response from the American side,” Moallem said in an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor.
Moallem, who led Syria’s delegation to the opening of the United Nations peace conference on Syria today, Jan. 22, in Montreux, Switzerland, and will lead the government in talks with the opposition in Geneva on Jan. 24, said he would give priority in subsequent discussions to so-called confidence-building measures such as local cease-fires, humanitarian relief and prisoner exchanges.
“We want to see how much this opposition is related to the armed group in Aleppo,” he added.
