Military and political opposition forces in Aleppo on Sunday rejected U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura’s proposal for a freeze in fighting in parts of Aleppo.
“We refuse to meet with Mr. Staffan de Mistura if it is not on the basis of a comprehensive solution to the Syrian crisis through the exit Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle, and the prosecution of war criminals,” a newly formed Aleppo revolutionary commission said.
The commission of Aleppo revolutionary forces was set up on Saturday at a meeting in the Turkish border town of Kilis attended by president of the Syrian Coalition Khaled Khoja, other opposition figures and Aleppo civil society representatives.
De Mistura’s proposal “falls short of an initiative to resolve the humanitarian crisis of our people targeted by the regime’s use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs prohibited by the international community,” it said in a statement.
The plan, it added, undermined the communique of Geneva I, which stipulated the formation of a transitional governing body with executive powers, and the departure of Al-Assad.
Aleppo’s opposition forces also turned down preferential treatment for their region over other areas of Syria stricken by the Assad regime’s war machine.
“Syria and its people are one and indivisible. The blood of our brothers in Dara’a, in Ghouta, in Homs and in other Syrian provinces are no less important than our blood in Aleppo,” they said in a statement.
Vice-President of the Syrian Coalition Hisham Marwa hails the outcome of the Kilis meeting, pointing out that “these decisions are fully compatible with the policies of the Syrian Coalition, as the proposed “freeze” plan does not include a political solution, nor can be considered a detailed plan. It also lets go of the bases of a political solution which were spelled out in the Geneva declaration and in the UN Security Council Resolution 2118.”
Marwa stresses that a political solution must begin with the departure of Assad who cannot be a partner in power, noting that the perpetrators of war crimes, whoever they were, must be excluded from any solution and brought to trial.”
It is worth noting that president Khoja and members of the Syrian Coalition, the Syrian interim government and FSA commanders from Aleppo met yesterday in the Turkish town of Kilis on the Syrian-Turkish border to discuss the situation in Aleppo and to lay out a unified response to the international initiatives, particularly the “freeze” plan put forth by the UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
