Should US back UN plan for cease-fire in Aleppo?
UN Syria envoy says that "assurances will not be enough" to end fighting; Turkey’s border a "strategic problem" in anti-Islamic State campaign.
De Mistura: "no illusions" about challenges ahead
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told the UN Security Council on Feb. 17 that there was a “glimmer of hope” as the Syrian government said it would be willing to halt aerial bombing and artillery shelling of Aleppo for a period of six weeks.
De Mistura added that he has "no illusions" about the difficulty of implementing a freeze. “We shall be cautious with words. Assurances will not be enough. Facts on the ground will prove if the ‘freeze’ holds and can be replicated elsewhere,” he said.
Khaled Khoja, president of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, was skeptical. “The past four years have revealed the regime’s goal behind these local truces, which is to gain more time and escalate attacks on the rebel-held areas,” Khoja said Feb. 19.
