Syria said on Tuesday that it was interested in exploring a proposal by the UN and Arab League peace envoy for a truce later this month even as it unleashed multiple air strikes on rebel positions on a key highway. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pre-dawn air raids around Maaret al-Numan were the "most violent" since insurgents captured the strategic town on the Damascus-Aleppo road last week.
The Syrian foreign ministry said it looked forward to talks with envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on his proposal for a cease-fire for the four-day Eidul-Azha holiday which he has been promoting on a regional tour. But ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdisi stressed that for a halt to the violence, the rebels and their backers would also need to be involved.
"In order to succeed in any initiative, it takes two sides," Maqdisi said in answer to a question from AFP. "The Syrian side is interested in exploring this option and we are looking forward to talking to Mr Brahimi to see what is the position of other influential countries that he talked to in his tour," he said. "Will they pressure the armed groups that they host and finance and arm in order to abide by such a cease-fire?"
Brahimi was in Cairo on Tuesday on the latest leg of a regional tour that has already taken him to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, staunch backers of the opposition, and Iran, Syria's closest ally. Brahimi's office said the envoy had appealed for Iranian help to broker the truce. "He reiterated the call by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for a cease-fire and a halt to the flow of arms to both sides. A cease-fire, he said, would help create an environment that would allow a political process to develop," his office said.
The UN chief had previously called for a unilateral cease-fire by the Syrian government to be matched by the rebels only afterwards, but that idea was rejected by Damascus as its troop losses mount. Syrian warplanes targeted the rebel blockade of the highway to Aleppo, theatre of intense fighting for the past three months, the Observatory said, adding that rebels responded with anti-aircraft fire. "Since this morning, there have been 29 air strikes on the area of Maaret al-Numan," said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman. "Most civilians from the area have fled."
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