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by Our Foreign Desk
SYRIA’S military high command offered anti-government forces in Aleppo the chance yesterday to lay down their weapons and evacuate the city.
The command said that government forces would guarantee opposition fighters safe passage out of the city’s eastern neighbourhoods.
The offer followed gains for pro-government forces around eastern Aleppo.
Al Masdar news agency reported that the government’s Republican Guard, backed by Liwaa Al-Quds Palestinian militia, had continued its large-scale offensive inside the city on Saturday night targeting several sectors controlled by the jihadist rebels of Fatah Halab and Jaysh al-Fateh.
Starting with the northern sector, the army continued its offensive in the Bustan al-Basha district, capturing more buildings amid the collapse of Fatah Halab’s first line of defence.
To the north of Bustan al-Basha, government forces pushed deeper into the Shuqayf district, advancing around the Tal Umm Abboud area after intense clashes with Fatah Halab.
Inside the eastern sector, the Republican Guard, backed by the Ba’ath Battalions and National Defence Forces, made a second attempt at capturing the Suleiman al-Halabi district, resulting in the seizure of several blocks near the water pumping station.
Russian and Syrian war planes continued to pound jihadist defences all over the provincial capital, Al Masdar reported.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced on Saturday that Moscow had warned Washington against carrying out any attacks on Syrian government forces, saying that it would have repercussions across the Middle East.
She said that it would “lead to terrible tectonic consequences, not only on the territory of this country but also in the region on the whole.”
Ms Zakharavo added that regime change in Syria would create a vacuum that would be “quickly filled” by “terrorists of all stripes.”
Moscow’s warning followed publication in the New York Times of a taped conversation between US Secretary of State John Kerry and anti-Assad Syrians during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly.
Mr Kerry revealed differences with President Barack Obama, declaring: “I’ve argued for use of force. I stood up.
“I’m the guy who stood up and announced we’re going to attack (Syrian President Bashar al-)Assad because of the weapons and then, you know, things evolved into a different process.”
