Hollande, Merkel to Persuade Putin to Extend Humanitarian Pause in Syria - Paris

The French government said the leaders of Germany and France will try to persuade the Russian president to extend the humanitarian pause in Aleppo.

PARIS (Sputnik) — French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel plan to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend the humanitarian pause in Syria, the French government said Wednesday.

"Later today I and Mrs. Merkel will ask Mr. Putin to extend the truce for humanitarian access, which was announced yesterday," Hollande's administration quoted him as saying.

The announcement on the humanitarian pause for Aleppo was made on Monday by chief of the Russian General Staff's Main Operational Directorate Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy. On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian Arab Air Force stopped airstrikes in the vicinity of Aleppo starting 07:00 GMT ahead of the humanitarian pause.

Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said that a longer ceasefire in the city of Aleppo was possible, but it had to be agreed on multilaterally.

Putin, Hollande, Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko are scheduled to meet in Berlin later on Wednesday as part of the Normandy quartet to settle the Ukrainian conflict. The conflict in Syria is also expected to be addressed at the summit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier in the day.