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Italy, Russia back plan to get militant groups out of E. Aleppo

ROME, Dec 2 (KUNA) -- Italy and Russia expressed support to the UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura's call for anti-regime militant groups to get out of the Eastern parts of the northern city of Aleppo.
Moscow has expressed support to the UN envoy De Mistura's plan to allow militant groups to leave and give access to humanitarian and relief organizations to the besieged Eastern Aleppo neighborhood, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a joint press conference with Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on the sidelines of the Med Dialogues 2016 conference in Rome.
Lavrov also emphasized that all Syrian opposition groups have to cut off all contact with terrorist groups operative in Syria.
He reiterated that Russia believes that there is no military solution to the crisis in Syria and only political dialogue is the viable solution.
He, however, claimed that negotiations "are blocked by those who want to oust the Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
"UN Security Council Resolution 2254 demands the beginning of negotiations on a political solution in Syria without preconditions," Lavrov said.
"Unfortunately, for more than half a year, the negotiations have been blocked by those who, in violation of the UN Security Council resolution, are promoting an ultimatum that it is preliminarily necessary to remove Assad, which is of course unacceptable because such agreements have not been made." For his part, Gentiloni expressed his country's support to the UN envoy's call for militants to leave the eastern parts of Aleppo.
"There is discussion underway on how this would be carried out," he added. "I hope that today's meetings in Rome can open up some positive possibility in this direction." He also urged humanitarian intervention in Syria.
He added that this was necessary since "the gravity of what is happening in Aleppo is clear to everyone. We need to support attempts made by the UN" to alleviate the situation. (end) mn.ibi