Syria proposes Aleppo cease-fire, prisoner swap

Syria's top diplomat said today his country is prepared to implement a cease-fire in the shattered city of Aleppo and exchange detainees with opposition forces as a confidence-building measure before a peace conference opens next week in Switzerland.
Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told journalists about the cease-fire plan after meeting in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. He did not divulge details of the plan, which would contain "measures to enforce security" in Aleppo, Syria's largest city.
A member of the opposition dismissed the overture as "last-minute maneuvering" by the Syrian government to please Russia, its main ally in the international community and a sponsor of the conference to halt the civil war.

"As a result of our confidence in the Russian position and its role in stopping the Syrian bloodshed, today I submitted to Minister Lavrov a plan for security arrangements that have to do with the city of Aleppo," al-Moallem said. "I asked him to make necessary arrangements to guarantee its implementation and specify the zero hour for military operations to cease."
The comments came as Syria's main Western-backed opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, was scheduled to meet in Istanbul later today to decide whether to participate in the peace talks.
The opposition has remained adamant that the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad is a condition for any deal, and al-Moallem's overtures in Moscow appeared to be an attempt to coax the group into attending the talks.

The opposition has accused the government of reneging on promises in the past and declaring cease-fires only to buy time.

Haitham al-Maleh, a senior member of the coalition, said the coalition was inclined to vote in favour of participating in the Geneva talks.
"We are not obliged to stay there forever. If we find any deviation in the negotiations, we'll withdraw. ... We'll find a way to say 'goodbye' since it's an issue where there can be no bargaining," he told The Associated Press in Istanbul. The meeting between the Russian and Syrian sides was part of a final diplomatic push ahead of the peace conference that has been dubbed Geneva 2, which opens Wednesday in Montreux, Switzerland.

But prospects for the talks, the first between the warring sides in Syria since the start of the conflict, are dim, because each party shows no inclination for compromise.
Al-Moallem made clear that Syria's priority at the conference was to discuss "combating terrorism." The Syrian government has repeatedly said that it was out of the question for Assad to step down.