No moderate rebels here RT talks with Aleppo civilians

[Anthea]

‘No moderate rebels here’: RT talks with Aleppo civilians on new ceasefire deal

People living in southern Aleppo seem to have little optimism for a new ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and the US overnight, RT’s correspondent Lizzie Phelan found out after talking to residents in the neighborhood.

Aleppo has been a divided city for years and has been the focus of hostilities over the past few months. Phelan walked the city’s war-ravaged streets on Saturday just hours after the US and Russia announced a new plan to establish a truce in Syria. At a distance of approximately one kilometer from one of the city's frontlines, it seems that civilians are not very hopeful that it will succeed.

“We hope that the ceasefire holds because it would be good for all Aleppo. If not, let the military operations continue,” said one man, who introduced himself as Ayman.

“I don’t think this plan will work because there are no so-called moderate rebels in Aleppo. All armed groups are acting like terrorists.”

Abdul Karim agreed: “Every time it’s just the same. The armed groups are just breaking the ceasefire and targeting us.”

Another man, Kemal, said foreign militants fighting alongside opposition forces is the biggest source of instability in Syria.

“We, Syrians, can reach an agreement. But we don’t want foreigners in our country. We just want to kick them out. Hopefully, the plan will work,” he said.

https://www.rt.com/news/358909-syria-al ... ans-truce/

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Syria war: Rebel-held Aleppo has 'days' of fuel left

[quote][/quote]Fuel supplies could run out within days in a rebel-held part of the Syrian city of Aleppo, the UN special envoy for Syria has warned.

Fighting has escalated between Syria's army and rebels in eastern Aleppo, where 250,000 people live.

Staffan de Mistura said food and water shortages made the situation there even more serious than previously.

He said a ceasefire deal at US-Russian talks in Geneva could make a major difference to aid efforts across Syria.

The US has said the talks are "making progress" but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Washington is delaying a deal.

On Sunday, Syrian government forces were reported to have recaptured parts of Aleppo city which were lost to rebels last month, placing rebel-held districts in the city's east once again under siege.

A monitoring group said government troops had recaptured two military academy sites in the Ramouseh district, in the south of the city, and severed a recently established rebel supply line.

'Apex of horror'

"There is a growing concern about eastern Aleppo: the issue about food, the issue about the possibility that within perhaps the next few days it will turn out to be dark because there is no fuel, problems of water," Mr de Mistura said on Friday.

UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien told the BBC conditions in Aleppo had become appalling: "Eastern Aleppo is at the apex of horror, where anyone of us if we were there would find life barely possible, let alone tolerable."

Mr O'Brien said civilians were trapped in ruined buildings, subjected to daily bombing and shelling.

He described children in the city as a "lost" generation, who had no access to school.

Over the summer the UN's ability to deliver aid across Syria was greatly reduced because of the increased fighting, the UN said.

Little aid was delivered in July, less in August, and none at all so far in September, it added.

Another decade of bloodshed? Analysis by Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor, Damascus

A ceasefire deal that the Russians and the Americans arranged back in February collapsed quickly in the north but it is still more or less holding, or at least influencing matters, around Damascus.

That does not mean that the war is anywhere near over. A Syrian general at the ministry of defence told me they were well aware that the war in Lebanon a generation ago had lasted 16 years.

This one, he said, was much more complicated so there could be at least another 10 years of bloodshed. The collective tragedy is that so many foreign countries have intervened in the war that it has become much harder to stop.

Syria's war is a big part of the historic change sweeping through the Middle East, and it is tied into other conflicts. Power is shifting, with global repercussions. More tragedies lie ahead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37321476