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Syria to support any initiative holding promise of peace settlement — president Assad

Assad said at a meeting with UN Special Envoy in Damascus that Syria would support any initiative and any ideas that would work towards settlement of the crisis and help save the lives if civilians
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad EPA/SANA HANDOUT
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad
© EPA/SANA HANDOUT

BEIRUT, February 11. /TASS/. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has confirmed support for an initiative on local truce in Aleppo put forward by Staffan de Mistura, a special envoy of the UN Secretary General.

Assad said at a meeting with De Mistura in Damascus that Syria would support any initiative and any ideas that would work towards settlement of the crisis, help save the lives of civilians and enable institutes of the state to function.

De Mistura, a veteran of Italian diplomacy, made the third visit to Syria in September since last year. He took the position of the special representative for settlement in Syria in May 2014, replacing the Algerian Lakhdar Brahimi, who had held it for two years and had facilitated the convocation of two rounds of inter-Syrian talks in Geneva.

Former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan, was the first UN envoy for Syria (through to August 2012). It was during his tenure of the position that the UN sent a mission of observers to the war-torn Arab country.