ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Russia favours a proposal made by the UN’s envoy to Syria to resolve hostilities in Aleppo over a resolution drafted by the French, said its ambassador to the international body on Friday. “The French proposal is very hastily put together and I frankly believe this is designed not to make progress,” Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin. France’s draft resolution, if it were approved, would have obligated both Russia and Syria to ground their warplanes in that country as part of a ceasefire to stop fighting in Aleppo. “It’s unprecedented for the members of the [UN Security] Council to ask a permanent member to limit its own activities,” Churkin said, adding that he was faced with a situation where his country would, as a member of the Security Council, be expected to vote on a resolution which would compel it to curtail its own military’s activities. Presently the UN’s special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura is trying to arrange a deal whereby opposition forces in east Aleppo, including militants in the group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, will be permitted safe passage out of the city with their weapons by the Russians and the Syrian regime. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said he supports the plan “for the sake of saving Aleppo.” Nusra refuses, saying such a compromise would amount to “surrender” on their part.
