The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday that talks are taking place to include Syria’s Aleppo province in the temporary “regime of calm” lull in fighting, Russian agencies reported.<\/p>\n
General Sergei Kuralenko, in charge of Russia’s ceasefire monitoring center in Syria, was also cited as saying that the “calm” around Damascus has been extended for another 24 hours
\nuntil 2100 GMT on Monday.<\/p>\n
Kuralenko also said that overall the “regime of calm” in Syria’s Latakia and around Damascus has been respected, RIA news agency reported.
\nMeanwhile, the United States is working on \u201cspecific initiatives\u201d to reduce the violence in Syria and sees stopping the bloodshed in Aleppo as a top priority, a US State Department spokesman said on Saturday.
\nIn a statement detailing calls Secretary of State John Kerry has made over the past two days with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and with Riyad Hijab, a negotiator for Syrian opposition groups, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry had made clear the United States wanted Russia to apply pressure to the Assad government to get it to stop \u201cindiscriminate aerial attacks\u201d in Aleppo.
\n\u201cIn both calls, the secretary underscored that the initial efforts to reaffirm the cessation of hostilities in Latakia and Eastern Ghouta are not limited to these two areas and that efforts to renew the cessation must and do include Aleppo,\u201d Kirby said.
\nProspects for Syria political solution \u2018in danger\u2019
\nThe prospects of finding a political solution to the Syria conflict are in danger unless the international community acts fast to pressure the regime, the head of the main Syrian opposition group said Saturday, after new air strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo.
\nThe assault on Syria\u2019s divided second city by the armed forces of President Bashar al-Assad has put in jeopardy a fragile truce that had given new hope to UN-backed peace talks in Geneva.
\nRussian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Moscow would not ask Damascus to halt air raids on Aleppo.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s clear that Russia is still supporting the regime, and it\u2019s supporting the regime policy of aggression against the Syrian people,\u201d said Abdeh.
\nRussia in March had begun withdrawing its main contingent of troops from Syria but the announcement was greeted with suspicion by some observers.
\n\u201cRussia isn\u2019t doing what it\u2019s supposed to do, which is to put enough pressure on the regime to show the restraint and to stop targeting civilians,\u201d he said.
\nAbdeh said it was up to Washington — which has engaged in intense diplomacy with Moscow to find a solution in Syria — to salvage the Geneva peace process after the latest fighting.
\n\u201cI think the Americans know really well they have to do something special in order to revive the political process in Syria and to get the political negotiation back on track.
\n\u201cI hope the Americans are doing that, otherwise all the good efforts of the past four months would go in vain.\u201d
\nA new round of UN-backed peace talks is set to start on May 10 in Geneva.<\/p>\n
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