BEIRUT // Fighting raged on in Syria on Friday, as a hoped-for truce failed to materialise and Russia called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
Further dampening hopes for an end to the conflict, UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura said a February 25 date for a resumption of stalled peace talks was no longer “realistically” possible.
Russia, a key backer of the Syrian regime, said it had called for a Security Council meeting on Friday evening to address Turkey’s proposal for ground forces to be deployed in Syria.
Moscow “intends ... to introduce a draft resolution calling for a halt to any actions that would undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria”, said the Russian foreign ministry.
Russia also warned, however, that recent comments by president Bashar Al Assad about retaking all of Syria were out of step with Moscow’s diplomatic efforts.
Turkey has called for a joint ground operation in Syria with its international allies, insisting that such an intervention is the only way to stop the country’s five-year war.
On the ground, meanwhile, a Kurdish-led rebel alliance backed by US-led strikes seized an ISIL stronghold in the north-east of the country, a Britain-based monitor said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces were now in full control of Al Shadadi in Hassakeh province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory said ISIL forces had withdrawn south of the town, and that SDF fighters were engaged in “mopping up” operations outside Al Shadadi.
The Observatory’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said the town’s capture was due in large part to heavy US-led air strikes.
The SDF began a new operation in Hassakeh province on Tuesday, and had been advancing towards Al Shadadi in recent days.
Earlier, it seized a nearby oilfield from ISIL and cut two routes leading from Al Shadadi to Mosul in neighbouring Iraq and Raqqa, ISIL’s de facto capital in Syria.
The SDF is an alliance of Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Arab forces, although the Kurds dominate the coalition.
It has successfully battled ISIL elsewhere in Hassakeh, with support from the US-led coalition that began strikes in Syria in September 2014.
It is also waging a major operation in Aleppo province where it has seized key territory from Syrian rebels.
Also on Friday, Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir was quoted as saying that moderate Syrian rebels should be supplied with surface-to-air missiles to defend against air strikes.
The rebels are under attack from both the Syrian air force and Russian strikes.
Mr Al Jubeir said that providing them with rockets would "enable the moderate opposition to neutralise the regime's helicopters and planes", according to German news magazine Der Spiegel.
Last week a plan was announced by 17 world powers for humanitarian access throughout Syria and a truce that was to have begun by Friday.
But while aid deliveries have gone ahead to several besieged areas and the United Nations has said it hopes to deliver aid to all 18 areas within a week, there was no sign on Friday of a halt in fighting being implemented soon.
The Munich plan was supposed to pave the way for the resumption next week of peace talks that collapsed earlier this month.
But Mr de Mistura told a Swedish newspaper on Friday that he could not “realistically call for new Geneva talks starting on February 25”.
"We need 10 days of preparations and invitations. But we will aim to do this soon," the Svenska Dagbladet quoted him as saying.
* Agence France-Presse, with additional reporting by Reuters
