Russia, Turkey-Brokered Syria Ceasefire Has More Chances Than Others: UN Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has praised the joint efforts of Russia and Turkey to broker peace in Syria, and has urged the international community to support it.
“The ceasefire is holding more than previous ones,” de Mistura said at the Munich Security Conference, “and in my modest opinion has, if we all look at it carefully and support it, more chances to actually succeed than others.”
This is because, according to de Mistura, both Russia and Turkey have the assets in Syria needed to “exercise leverage, which is a crucial point.”
There is a mechanism being established to monitor and support the ceasefire, de Mistura said.
“That's why we have been supporting Astana, and the meetings in Astana, of course based on the assumption that they are surgical, laser-beamed on a very important issue: establishing, stabilizing and reinforcing the cessation of hostilities.”
De Mistura believes that Russian and Turkish brokering helped avoid the worst possible scenario for the battle of Aleppo, Russia Today reported.
“There were not-so-secret meetings in Ankara, and those meetings produced discussions between armed groups and Russian military which avoided – people sometimes forget it – the final, the worst part, of the battle of Aleppo,” which, he said, “would have led to the total destruction of the city plus 110,000-115,000 between refugees and dead people.”