“We (…) call on all parties to de-escalate and protect civilians and infrastructure in order to avoid further displacement and disruption of the delivery of humanitarian aid,” Washington wrote in a joint statement. , Paris, Berlin and London.
The United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom called this Sunday, December 1 in a joint statement for “de-escalation” in Syria, where rebel groups have inflicted a heavy blow on the regime of Bashar al-Assad , taking control of several territories in recent days.
It is the first time since the start of the war in Syria in 2011 that the government, an ally of Iran and Russia, has completely lost control of Aleppo, a stinging setback inflicted by a coalition of rebel groups dominated by Islamists.
Fear of a resumption of hostilities
Receiving the head of Iranian diplomacy, Abbas Araghchi, in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad stressed “the importance of the support of allies and friends to confront the attacks of foreign-backed terrorists and thwart their plans “. He earlier threatened to use “force to break the terrorists”.
Russia said its air forces were helping the Syrian army “push back” rebels in the provinces of Idlib (northwest), Hama (central) and Aleppo (north), while Iran reiterated his “firm” support for the Assad regime.
After Damascus, Abbas Araghchi arrived in Ankara on Sunday evening where he is due to meet his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on Monday before a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to officials.
In 2015 and with crucial military support from Russia and Iran, the Assad regime launched a counter-offensive which allowed it to gradually regain control of a large part of the country and in 2016 of the entire the city of Aleppo, the economic heart of pre-war Syria.
The violence, the first of this magnitude since 2020, raises fears of a resumption of large-scale hostilities in a country divided into several zones of influence, where the belligerents are supported by different regional and international powers.
