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UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura met with Syrian opposition members on Monday to discuss his plan on locally “freezing” fighting in second city Aleppo.
“The talks started today with representatives of armed and non-armed groups in Gaziantep” in southern Turkey, Juliette Touma, de Mistura’s spokeswoman, said.
“The U.N. delegation is made up of four people, including De Mistura”, she added.
The UN envoy first unveiled the plan in October, promoting it as a way for aid to reach the city. The Syrian regime has said that it would “study” the proposal.
The al-Watan daily, close to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, on Monday reported that the Syrian government wants the ceasefire to only be in Aleppo, while rebels want to extend it to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing near Turkey.
Touma refused to respond to questions about the newspaper’s report, saying that “the plan is being discussed and we don’t know for now what the boundaries will be”.
Security measures in Gaziantep were high as the meeting set afoot. The rebels were represented by the leader of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) Qais Sheikh. The RCC is a coalition of several extremist and moderate rebel groups.
“All the brothers in Aleppo have accepted Qais Sheikh as their representative. We are there for discussions and consultations, but we won’t take the decisions here. The decisions will be made after consulting all the members of the RCC and we will only consider what is in the interests of the revolution”, Sobhi al-Rifai, head of the RCC’s executive bureau, said.
He also declined to comment on whether they will seek an extension of the ceasefire zone.
“It’s them (the U.N.) that proposed a ceasefire. We want to discuss the situation in all of Syria”, he said.