Syrian FM: Ready for Aleppo ceasefire, prisoner exchange
Syria's Foreign Minister has said that Syria is prepared to implement a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo and exchange detainees with opposition forces. The move comes as a confidence building measure ahead of a peace conference opening Wednesday in Switzerland. Walid Al-Moallem talked about the ceasefire plan on Friday after meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
"As I already said, today I submitted to Minister Lavrov a plan for security arrangements in Aleppo city. I am very much hoping and counting on success in realising this plan if all sides keep to their responsibilities in terms of ensuring security. If it works, we can use Aleppo as an example and then spread it to all other cities. I have informed Minister Lavrov of our principle in favour of exchanging the detainees in Syrian prisons with those captured by the other side. In this regard, we are ready to exchange lists and work out a specific mechanism of how we will reach these goals," Al-Moallem said.
After talks with Al-Moallem on Friday, Lavrov said he believed Syria would demonstrate political will and restraint and would not let anyone undermine the conference. He also expressed Russia's concern that Syrian opposition group, the National Coalition, might attempt to delay Geneva II due to internal differences.
Lavrov assured that Russia would continue its aid to Syrian refugees, calling for coordination from Syrian opposition groups. He noted that the attempts to use humanitarian issues for justification of "humanitarian intervention" were unacceptable and the attempts would undermine the Geneva-II conference.
