France, Germany to hold talks with Russia over Syria ceasefire

ANI  |  Paris [France] 

French and German will hold talks with Russian on Sunday over the ceasefire resolution, the presidency said in a statement.

The talks come hours after the (UNSC) on Saturday unanimously backed a 30-day ceasefire resolution in to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

According to France's presidency said that the ceasefire resolution adopted was "an essential first step", and would be "extremely vigilant" over its implementation, according to

The resolution comes in response to the seven-day airstrikes and bombings in the Eastern Ghouta region in that has claimed over 500 lives so far.

UN appealed on Wednesday for an immediate end to "war activities" there and had referred to the Syrians living in the Eastern Ghouta enclave near as "Hell on Earth".

Earlier, the UNSC was supposed to vote on the ceasefire in on Thursday, which is seeing a bloody six-year-old civil war.

Negotiations stumbled over Russian demands that the rebel groups fighting Syrian Bashar al-Assad's forces should comply with the resolution.

Russia, which is also a of the vetoed 11 times to protect the Syrian

The draft resolution put forward by and Sweden, earlier called for a nationwide resolution to go into effect within 72 hours after the resolution is passed. Medical evacuations and aid deliveries would start 48 hours after adopting the resolution.

However, the plan did not materialise.

The Bashar-led Syrian and its close ally have repeatedly said that the motive of airstrikes is to target militants.

They have said that they seek to stop mortar attacks injuring dozens in Damascus, and have accused the militants in Eastern Ghouta of capturing and holding people as "human shields".

Moscow, which intervened militarily in support of its ally in 2015, has denied any direct involvement in the Eastern Ghouta bombardment.

The Syrian military forces have not commented on the resolution so far.

At least 35 civilians were killed in Saturday's strikes, including eight children. A night of heavy bombardment sparked fires in residential districts, the for Human Rights (SOHR) said in a statement.

Eastern Ghouta, which houses around 400,000 residents, has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sun, February 25 2018. 07:05 IST
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