BEIRUT // Syria has indicated its readiness to stop bombing the northern city of Aleppo for six weeks, offering a glimmer of hope in a war entering its fifth year.
UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday he plans to travel “as soon as possible” to Aleppo and Damascus, where the date for the temporary halt will be announced.
“I have no illusions because based on past experiences this will be a difficult issue,” Mr de Mistura said in New York after addressing the UN Security Council. “We will engage very much with the opposition hopefully to get a response to a similar request from the UN to halt” attacks, he said.
“The purpose is to spare as many civilians as possible while we try to find a political solution,” the diplomat said.
The announcement was the first sign of progress for Mr de Mistura, who was appointed UN peace envoy for Syria in July.
Last year he proposed a plan to “freeze” fighting in Aleppo in a bid to allow humanitarian access, but the proposal failed to gain much traction.
Mr de Mistura incurred the wrath of the opposition last week by describing president Bashar Al Assad as “part of the solution” to the country’s conflict.
On the ground, meanwhile, Syrian troops effectively severed the main rebel supply route into the eastern half of Aleppo city, which is under opposition control, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The highway runs up to the Turkish border through the town of Tal Rifaat, but regime forces now control two villages that straddle the route, effectively closing it to rebel traffic.
Aleppo city has been divided between regime control in the west and rebel control in the east since shortly after fighting began there in mid-2012.
Government forces advanced around the east of the city last year, but the front lines had been relatively static in recent weeks.
The severing of the highway leaves the rebels with only a long detour through the countryside available to them for resupply.
Regime forces also captured the village of Hardateen, in the countryside of Aleppo, but lost another village to rebel fighters in the area, the Britain-based Observatory said.
The fighting left more than 150 people dead, the monitor reported, including at least 70 regime forces, both army troops and foreign and local militiamen.
At least 86 opposition forces were killed, including 20 from Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al Nusra Front.
More than 210,000 people have killed in Syria since the country’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests that spiralled into a war after a regime crackdown.
* Bloomberg and Agence France-Presse
