BEIRUT // Syria has offered a ceasefire in war-torn Aleppo and a prisoner swap with opposition forces as a show of faith before peace talks next week in Switzerland.
Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Al Muallem, spoke of the ceasefire plan after meeting his Russian equal Sergey Lavrov in Moscow yesterday.
Mr Al Muallem did not give details but said it would contain “measures to enforce security” in Aleppo.
The meeting in Moscow was part of a final diplomatic push before Geneva 2, which opens on Wednesday in Montreux.
But prospects for the talks, which are the first between the warring sides since the start of the conflict, are dim as each party shows no inclination for compromise.
Syria’s main western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, was meeting in Istanbul yesterday to decide whether to take part in the peace talks.
It has remained adamant that any deal would have to include the removal of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.
“As a result of our confidence in the Russian position and its role in stopping the Syrian bloodshed, today I submitted to minister Lavrov a plan for security arrangements that have to do with the city of Aleppo,” Mr Al Muallem said. “I asked him to make necessary arrangements to guarantee its implementation and specify the zero hour for military operations to cease.”
He said if it succeeded the ceasefire plan could be used as a model for other parts of the country, where the conflict has claimed more than 130,000 lives since March 2011.
Mr Al Muallem said his government had agreed “in principle” to a prisoner exchange, but there needed to be an exchange of lists and an agreed way to implement the swap.
A ceasefire and prisoner exchange have been key demands of the opposition before talks, but it was unclear whether Mr Al Muallem’s offer would sway the meeting in Istanbul, which is deeply sceptical of any government overtures.
John Kerry, US secretary of state, said Mr Al Assad had no place in Syria’s future and the US could increase pressure on him.
“I believe as we get to Geneva and begin to get into this process, it will become clear there is no political solution whatsoever if Assad is not discussing a transition and if he thinks he is going to be part of that future,” he said in Washington.
“It is not going to happen. We are also not out of options with respect to what we may be able to do to increase the pressure and further change the calculus.”
The fighting in Syria again spilled over into Lebanon yesterday, when almost two dozen missiles and shells slammed into border towns and villages, killing seven people, including several children who were out playing, Lebanese officials said.
Most of the casualties occurred in the town of Arsal, where thousands of Syrians have fled to escape their country’s civil war.
Residents in the area said heavy fighting between Syrian troops and rebels has been taking place on the Syrian side of the border since Thursday.
In north-western Syria yesterday, rebels ousted an Al Qaeda-linked faction from one of its bastions, activists said, in a serious blow to the group after two weeks of infighting that has undercut the insurgency.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) had pulled out of Saraqeb, strategically important because it straddles highways connecting Aleppo, the capital Damascus and Mr Al Assad’s coastal stronghold of Latakia.
But in a sign that the conflict was far from over, Isil retook control of the town of Jarabulus on the Turkish border after losing it to rival rebels for several hours.
The opposition’s internal fighting since the start of January has killed more than 1,000 people, says the Observatory, and helped Mr Al Assad’s forces claw back territory around Aleppo.
The Observatory said Isil recaptured Jarabulus after being bolstered by reinforcements from countryside east of Aleppo.
It said Isil bombed houses belonging to other rebels into rubble and that at least 22 fighters from opposing brigades were killed, five of them after being taken prisoner.
Local resentment towards Isil, a reinvigorated version of Al Qaeda in Iraq, had been growing after they kidnapped and killed opponents, and tried to impose a harsh interpretation of Islamic law in territory under their control.
Isil, which draws strength from a core of battle-hardened foreign Islamists, also angered fellow rebels by seizing territory from rival groups. But the group’s loss of Saraqeb is unlikely to bring the fighting much closer to an end.
Isil still controls large amounts of territory across north-eastern Syria including Raqqa, the only major city under full rebel control.
It has fended off rival advances with a campaign of car bombs and suicide attacks. Isil detonated four car bombs against its opponents on Thursday and at least one yesterday the Observatory says.
* Associated Press with additional reporting from Reuters
