For humanitarian pauses in Aleppo to happen the UN must guarantee that militants will agree on cease-fire, Russian Defense Ministry informed in response to the statement of the assistant to UN Special Envoy on Syria Jan Egeland, who believes that it is possible to resume humanitarian pauses next week. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov fears that such pauses can be used by militants to continuing massive attacks.
Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: "As long as the UN special envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura sabotages resolution on the need to convene the Geneva talks, patriotic opposition and official authorities have no choice but to take matters into their own hands."
Other UN idea was rejected by both Moscow and Damascus, which Staffan de Mistura visited with an initiative to establish autonomous region in the eastern Aleppo.
"Of course you followed de Mistura's visit to Syria and you know his proposals on the establishment of autonomy in the eastern Aleppo. But these proposals were rejected by the Syrian leadership. It's good when it comes to holding inter-Syrian negotiations, but he also made other proposals - on the establishment of cease-fire and autonomous region. However all conferences that were held in Vienna and Geneva emphasized the need to preserve the unity inside Syria, and that is why all attempts to create some kind of autonomous region inside Syria are rejected by us," Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad noted.
He pointed out that Damascus opposes any initiatives that could help the terrorists: "Previous truce did not lead to resolution of this problem, the terrorists are using civilians as human shield, mortar attacks continue. Terrorists use chemical agents. Russia has samples of these prohibited weapons. They found white phosphorus, chlorine, poisonous gas. But the West refused to send its own experts to ensure that the samples do contain these substances."
He stressed that Damascus appreciates the efforts made by Russia in the fight against terrorism: "Russia pursues the policy that relies on international law. Russia is the main force in the fight against terrorism today. This is the fight not only in the interests of Syria, but also in the interest of the world community, including Russia.
