MESOP NEWS TODAYS ALEPPO UPDATE : Rebels to US — We Will Not Leave Aleppo

By Scott Lucas – eaworldview – 4 Dec 2016 – Syria’s rebels have told the US that they will not leaved besieged and bombarded Aleppo city, despite the advance of a pro-Assad offensive.Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim faction said the message was delivered on Saturday via contacts to American officials: Our response to the Americans was as follows: we cannot leave our city, our homes, to the mercenary militias that the regime has mobilized in Aleppo…..

The US officials had asked the rebels, “Do you want to leave, (or) do you want to be steadfast?”, Malahifji said. The rebels responded with an allusion to the foreign forces attacking alongside the Syrian army and paramilitary units in Aleppo: “We cannot leave our homes to Afghanis, to Iraqis, and so on.”Malahifji added, “They listened to the response and did not comment.”

He repeated a call by rebels for the urgent delivery of food and medicine to eastern Aleppo city, cut off by a Russian-regime siege since late August, and for evacuation of the sick and wounded.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated on Saturday that there must be talks for the departure of all rebels “without exclusion” from Aleppo before the siege is lifted and attacks stop. Lavrov spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday about Kerry’s latest initiative for a ceasefire, evacuations, and renewal of a political process. The US Secretary of State insisted:All diplomacy is still alive…..That is [UN envoy] Staffan De Mistura’s goal, it is the apparent Russian goal, it is our goal.

Lavrov said Kerry had finally made proposals “in line” with those of Russian experts.Russia has also been in discussions with Turkey — a leading backing of the opposition and rebels, but one that may have accepted the Russian-regime attempt to overrun eastern Aleppo city — this week.The pro-Assad forces — Iranian units, Hezbollah, and Iraqi, Palestinian militia alongside regime troops and militia — have taken about 1/3 of opposition-held eastern Aleppo city since November 26. They are trying to seize other districts but have been held up by rebel resistance in the last 72 hours. About 50,000 civilians are said to fled eastern Aleppo, some to regime-held neighborhoods and others to the mainly-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud. An estimated 220,000 people remain. www.mesop.de