A UN envoy arrived in the Syrian capital today for talks with the regime to try to finalise a deal to freeze fighting in the war-ravaged second city of Aleppo.
Staffan de Mistura flew into Damascus as the Syrian army and pro-regime fighters regained territory in southern Syria against forces opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
De Mistura "hopes to set in motion as soon as possible his project" to halt fighting in Aleppo for six weeks, said a member of his delegation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He arrived at a hotel in the capital accompanied by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad.
The envoy has met government officials and opposition chiefs in recent weeks to promote his plan for a temporary truce in Aleppo in order to move aid into the northern city.
Once Syria's commercial hub, Aleppo has been devastated by fighting that began in mid-2012, and the city is now split between loyalist forces and rebels.
Last week De Mistura said the government had shown a willingness to suspend aerial bombardment of Aleppo for six weeks to allow a humanitarian ceasefire.
Under the plan, rebels would be asked to suspend rocket and mortar fire there during the freeze.
De Mistura incurred the wrath of the opposition earlier in February by describing Assad as "part of the solution" to the conflict.
About 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests that spiralled into a multi-sided civil war drawing foreign jihadists.
In Daraa province southwest of Damascus, regime troops backed by Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Iranian advisers and Iraqi militiamen gained territory from opposition rebels and Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today.
The pro-regime forces took control of three villages and several hills in Daraa in clashes that left seven rebels dead, the Britain-based monitor said.
Hezbollah and regime forces launched an operation earlier this month to try to reverse sweeping gains in the south made by anti-Assad rebels and Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
The strategically important region is near Damascus, the border with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Observatory estimates that 5,000 Hezbollah fighters are deployed in Syria.
Iran has also acknowledged sending military advisers and high-ranking officers from the elite Revolutionary Guard to help its ally Assad.
