Agencies, Dubai :Bombardment of the northern city of Aleppo shows no sign of ending even as the Syrian military extends a unilateral ceasefire around Damascus and opposition strongholds nearby for another 48 hours.The Aleppo fighting threatens to scuttle the first peace talks in Geneva between President Bashar al-Assad’s representatives and opposition groups which are due to resume at an unspecified date after breaking up in April.Between 350,000 and 400,000 people are believed to remain in rebel-held parts of Aleppo, once a city of two million.Meanwhile, in Geneva, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said on Monday that “several proposals”, aimed at finding a way to restore at least a partial truce in Syria, were being discussed.”We’re getting closer to a place of understanding, but we have some work to do, and that’s why we’re here,” he said at the start of a meeting on Monday with Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.After meeting Jubeir and Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, Kerry said he hoped for more clarity in the next day or so on restoring the nationwide ceasefire.”What is happening in Aleppo is an outrage. It’s a violation of all humanitarian laws. It’s a crime,” Jubeir said.”It’s a violation of all the understandings that were reached.”De Mistura, for his part, said he would travel to Moscow for talks.The US and Russia had agreed to keep extra staff in Geneva to work on the ceasefire. “Both sides, the opposition and the regime, have contributed to this chaos, and we are working intensely in order to try to restore the cessation of hostilities,” Kerry said.The peace talks in April in Geneva failed to make any headway, but De Mistura has said he hopes they can resume “during the course of May”.On Monday, France also called for a ministerial meeting of the international group supporting Syria to “restore the ceasefire”.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged Russia and the United States to put Syria’s ceasefire back on track and stressed that new truce arrangements in place for two areas must be extended to Aleppo.Heavy air strikes hit rebel-held east Aleppo in the early hours of Monday, days after the United States and Russia announced plans to reinforce the February 27 truce in Latakia and Damascus regions.Ban is “profoundly concerned about the dangerous escalation of fighting in and around Aleppo and the intolerable suffering, counted in mounting deaths and destruction, it is causing among civilians,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.The UN chief noted the re-launch of the cessation of hostilities in Damascus and Latakia and stressed “the need to expand these arrangements to other parts of Syria, with a special urgency for Aleppo.”The appeal came on the eve of talks between Ban’s envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on the collapsing ceasefire.
