France, UK Seek UN Security Council Meeting On Aleppo

New York, 27 Rajab 1437/5 May 2016 (MINA) –France and Britain are calling for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on Syria’s battleground city of Aleppo, the ambassadors said Tuesday.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre described Aleppo as the “martyred center of the resistance” to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and said the city “has been under constant bombardment since 2012.” World Bulletin quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

The meeting was expected to be held in the coming days.

“Aleppo is burning and it is crucial that we focus on this top priority issue,” said British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft.

The request for urgent talks came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow that efforts were under way to agree on a freeze in fighting in Aleppo.

Fresh fighting killed at least 16 people in attacks on Tuesday in the city, including in rocket fire on a maternity hospital.

A surge of violence that erupted on April 22 has left more than 270 people dead in the divided northern city and undermined efforts to revive peace negotiations.

After a relative lull in clashes on Monday and early Tuesday, rebels in eastern Aleppo fired a barrage of at least 65 rockets into government-controlled neighborhoods, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

At least three women were killed when the rockets crashed into a maternity hospital, the agency and state television said, and another 11 killed in fire on other government-held neighborhoods.

(T/P002/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)