SYRIAN ARMY GAINS, CALLS ON ALEPPO REBELS TO SURRENDER – GCC states demand UN intervention

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DOHA, Oct 2, (Agencies): The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) demanded on Saturday that the UN intervene in Syria to stop aerial bombardments of the city of Aleppo that it said were killing hundreds of civilians.

The Sunni Muslim dominated council — representing Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar — said a Syrian government offensive on the city was systematically destroying neighborhoods and a “flagrant aggression contrary to international laws.” “The Secretary-General … demands that the UN Security Council intervene immediately to stop the aggression on the city of Aleppo and end the suffering of the Syrian people,” the GCC said in a statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.

It called on the United Nations to “implement relevant council resolutions over the Syria crisis.” For 10 days a Russianbacked Syrian government offensive has been underway to capture eastern Aleppo and crush the last urban stronghold of a revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that began in 2011.

The collapse of the latest Syria ceasefire has heightened the possibility that Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar might arm Syrian rebels with shoulder-fired missiles to defend themselves against Syrian and Russian warplanes, US officials said on Monday. France’s foreign minister said on Wednesday he was working to put forward a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Aleppo, and that any country that opposed it would be deemed complicit in war crimes.

The United States continues to maintain that negotiations are the only way to end the carnage. But frustration with Washington has intensified, raising the possibility that Gulf allies — key backers of Syrian rebels — or Turkey will no longer continue to follow the US lead or will turn a blind eye to wealthy individuals looking to supply man-portable air defence systems, or MANPADS, to opposition groups. Meanwhile, Syrian government and allied forces have advanced towards Aleppo, pursuing their week-old offensive to take the rebel-held part of the city after dozens of overnight air strikes.

The Syrian army told the insurgents to leave their positions, offering safe passage and aid supplies. Syrian forces supported by Iranian-backed militias and Russian air power began their push to take the whole of the divided city after a ceasefire collapsed last month. An air campaign by the Syrian government and its allies has been reinforced by a ground offensive against the besieged eastern half of Aleppo, where insurgents have been holding out. Hospitals have been badly hit in the assault, medics say.

While Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone to discuss normalisation of the situation, Britain said the bombing of hospitals by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad made it impossible talk about peace. “It is the continuing savagery of the Assad regime against the people of Aleppo and the complicity of the Russians in committing what are patently war crimes — bombing hospitals, when they know they are hospitals and nothing but hospitals — that is making it impossible for peace negotiations to resume,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Syrian military said on Sunday that the army and its allies had advanced south from the Handarat refugee camp north of the city, taking the Kindi hospital and parts of the Shuqaif industrial area.

Zakaria Malahifji, of the Aleppobased rebel group Fastaqim, told Reuters there were clashes in this area on Sunday. The Observatory said air strikes and shelling continued on Sunday and there was fi erce fi ghting all along the front line which cuts the city in two. The Syrian army said that rebel fi ghters should vacate east Aleppo in return for safe passage and aid supplies. “The army high command calls on all armed fi ghters in the eastern neighbourhood of Aleppo to leave these neighbourhoods and let civilian residents live their normal lives,” a statement carried by state news agency SANA said. East Aleppo came under siege in early July after its main supply route, the Castello Road, fell under government control. International attempts to establish ceasefi res to allow in United Nations humanitarian aid have failed, although other aid groups have brought in limited supplies. The relentless Russian and Syrian air campaign has badly damaged hospitals and water supplies.

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