Syria’s Assad says victory in Aleppo won’t end the war

Trudeau said she could not confirm the Syrian government had stopped its military operations in Aleppo.

The Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that Moscow and Washington are conducting intense exchanges on the situation in Aleppo and “the situation there is changing every hour”.

About 18000 people had sought refuge in government-held areas, the United Nations said last week. The top US and Russian diplomats planned to discuss the crisis further during talks Wednesday in Germany.

“The situation was very hard”, said Um Abdu, 30, as she left the Bab al-Hadid neighbourhood with her husband, five children, mother and siblings.

Syria’s government and Russian Federation rejected a previous cease-fire for Aleppo while continuing to try to oust rebels from the city.

The IS-run Aamaq news agency posted a video of four captured government soldiers.

According to Lavrov, Moscow urges the UN Secretary General’s special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to appoint a date for the Syrian talks without delay.

Lavrov meanwhile announced that US-Russia military and diplomatic discussions would take place in Geneva on Saturday “to end the work… to define the means of resolving the problems of east Aleppo”.

Kerry, taking part in his last North Atlantic Treaty Organisation foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, said he would work for a relaunch of peace talks between the Syrian administration and the opposition with the help of Russian Federation.

Assad not in favor of ceasefire.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a potential US-Russia deal to allow Syrian rebels to leave Aleppo safely was still on the agenda.

Lavrov said the Syrian army suspended combat action late Thursday to allow some 8,000 civilians to leave the city in a convoy spreading across a five-kilometer (three-mile) route.

In comments published Wednesday, President Bashar Assad said victory in Aleppo would be a “huge step” toward the end of Syria’s war. It is a significant landmark towards the end of the battle, but the war in Syria will not end until terrorism is eliminated.

In the last week government forces steadily gained ground until on Wednesday – after a highly symbolic retreat from the Old City – the rebels called for the ceasefire to allow thousands of civilians to evacuate.

While rebels say they could fend off the offensive for some time to come, the fighting is complicated by tens of thousands of fearful civilians trapped in the rebel-held area, many of them related to the fighters, the official said.

Six Western powers demanded Wednesday an “immediate ceasefire” to bring aid into rebel-held Aleppo, warning “a humanitarian disaster” is unfolding as the enclave shrinks in size amid an aggressive advance by Syrian government forces. It’s the first major evacuation from the eastern sector.

Aleppo is being subjected to daily bombings and artillery attacks by the Syrian regime supported by Russian Federation and Iran, they said, adding that hospitals and schools “appear to be the targets of attack in an attempt to wear people down”.

“Let’s be realistic – it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria”, Assad said.

A senior Turkish official says the fate of the Syrian city of Aleppo has dominated high-level talks between Turkey and Russian Federation.

“The world needs to find a comprehensive solution in Syria that involves transition to a legitimate federal government and the withdrawal of all foreign forces”.

The president of a local council in Aleppo said on Thursday that more than 80 people have died in the city and as many as 3,500 have been wounded in the past 26 days, Reuters reported.