UN Syria envoy to propose a new ‘initiative’

“I will travel to NY to attend the opening of the 71st General Assembly, deliver New Zealand’s statement in the General Debate and chair a Leader-level meeting of the Security Council aimed at focusing global attention on the conflict in Syria”.

“There are some indications that you must have been seeing… to indicate a quite clear political initiative during the week preceding the General Assembly”, de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.

“Discussions are ongoing at a very senior military, security and diplomatic level between Russian and USA officers”, De Mistura said after a weekly humanitarian taskforce here.

Government forces kept Daraya under tight siege for four years after the suburb evicted security forces in 2012, ultimately securing an agreement for the estimated 6,000 remaining civilians to leave last week.

As for the proposed 48-hour humanitarian pause to the fighting in the city of Aleppo, Mr.de Mistura and his humanitarian advisor, Jan Egeland, said that an agreement is yet to be reached, as negotiations are still under way, following the announcement of support by Russian Federation.

There are now urgent fears for the safety of communities in other besieged locations, such as Al-Waer, Madaya, Foah and Kefraya. The U.N. criticized Daraya’s evacuation, saying it was not involved or consulted in the deal.

Ghadour said 200 gunmen who did not wish to give up their arms would be allowed safe passage to rebel-held areas in Syria’s northwestern Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

The UN was expecting today to get an answer back from the Government on its request for access to reach 1.2 million people in September.

The announcement comes amid the worldwide community’s continued stalled efforts to end the five-year Syrian civil war which has killed at least 250,000 people and displaced millions.

Heavy air strikes targeted areas of Hama province captured by Syrian insurgents from government forces in recent days, as Damascus counter-attacked on Thursday in an area of strategic importance to President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, says warplanes killed 10 “terrorists” in northern Hama.

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