Aleppo ‘hostage-taking’ should be ended

TEHRAN, Nov. 13 (MNA) – Deputy-FM for Arab and African Affairs has said in Aleppo, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been taken hostage by terrorists. Mr. Hossein Jaberi Ansari was talking with Mr. Staffan de Mistura, UNSG special envoy to Syrian crisis on Saturday about the latest developments in Aleppo, where he believed, the dire situation in the city should be addressed and that citizens should be freed of virtual hostage-taking by terrorists; “the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that diplomatic efforts should be in the priority for any change in Syria; with election to US presidency of Trump, the expectations of many players in Syria as well as of the international community would be viewed as dismal; we would not however tie our policies to possible changes in the White House, and see changes in Washington a US internal affair,” he told the meeting. “Humanitarian crisis in Aleppo is of prime importance to be addressed for any efforts in Syria to find a way out of the crisis; any solution to Aleppo should not impact the territorial integrity of Syria and that with pulling out of the warring factions, hostage-taking of hundreds of thousands of civilians should effectively be ended,” he concluded.