Syrian rebel groups in Aleppo on Wednesday called for a humanitarian truce in the eastern districts, which are under siege by regime forces and their allied sectarian militias with Russian air support.
The statement issued by the Aleppo Leadership Council, which Alsouria Net obtained a copy of, said that the groups had proposed four items, first of which was to declare an immediate humanitarian truce for five days and evacuate serious medical cases who need urgent care, noting that there were 500 of them, under the care of the United Nations and with necessary international guarantees.
In their statement, the groups called for the evacuation of those civilians who wanted to leave besieged eastern Aleppo to the northern countryside, noting that Idleb province was no longer a safe area because of aerial bombardment by Russia and the Assad regime on the towns and villages there.
It added that Idleb was unable to take anymore “internally displaced” as the province had exceeded its capacity to receive more forcibly displaced people from its areas because of the regime’s current policy of “surrender or starve.”
The fourth item of the opposition proposals said that “when the humanitarian situation is alleviated in eastern Aleppo, the concerned parties will negotiate around the city’s future.”
The rebel groups put the onus on “the related countries in general, and the great powers in particular, to be up to the moral obligations entrusted to them,” according to the statement.
For its part, Moscow stressed its position which states that “all opposition fighters remaining in eastern Aleppo are terrorists.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.