World diplomats have pleaded for safe passage for Aleppo’s civilians and for respect to be shown to Syria’s disintegrating rebel forces as Bashar al-Assad’s army moves ever closer to victory in the devastated city.



A meeting of US, European and Arab foreign ministers as well as Syrian opposition leaders in Paris on Saturday appeared resigned to what the UN called the “last steps” in the fall of Aleppo, seen as the biggest defeat for anti-Assad forces since the conflict broke out in 2011.

Russia claimed tens of thousands of people had left the city in the past three days during a “humanitarian pause”, but on Saturday the east of the city was under bombardment. The UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, were among the powers in Paris calling for civilians to be evacuated and condemning Assad’s “indiscriminate” bombing as a crime against humanity.

Kerry urged Russia to show “a little grace” as he was due to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva, hoping for a deal to enable people to leave Aleppo. The UN has expressed concern about reports that hundreds of men have gone missing after reaching government-held territory.

Russia and Assad “have a moment” where they could show mercy and offer guarantees that rebels would not be executed, Kerry said. “Fighters … don’t trust that if they agreed to leave to try to save Aleppo, that it will save Aleppo and they will be unharmed and free to move where they are not immediately attacked.”

Kerry was speaking a day after admitting to US embassy staff in Paris that he was “tired” of trying to negotiate with the Russians. “I know people are tired of these meetings. I’m tired of these meetings,” Kerry said. “People are sort of: ‘Oh, another meeting. OK. This one will end the same way the other one did.’ I get it, folks. I’m not born yesterday.

“But what am I supposed to do? Go home and have a nice weekend in Massachusetts while people are dying? Sit there in Washington and do nothing?”

With prospects appearing increasingly grim for the rebels, Kerry insisted that an Assad victory in Aleppo would not end the war if underlying issues remained unresolved.

He called the talks “the hardest kind of diplomacy” and, together with the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, urged a return to negotiations between Assad and his opponents.

Johnson added his voice to the calls for a humanitarian end to the siege and said: “Although the deterioration of the situation in Aleppo will be a setback for the Syrian opposition, it will not change the fundamentals of the conflict. There can be no military solution in Syria. We must keep pushing for a return to a political process with the credibility necessary for all parties to commit to an end to all the fighting.

“We agreed our first priority must be the protection of civilians and ensuring access for humanitarian aid. It’s essential that the regime and its backers provide the United Nations that access with immediate effect.”

Russia’s defence spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said Syrian troops had suspended their offensive to allow for an evacuation, but the activist-run Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said heavy clashes were under way. On Friday pro-regime forces claimed to occupy 85% of Aleppo where, said the UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura, around 100,000 people remained, squeezed into an “ever-shrinking” pocket without access to food or medicine.

Elsewhere in Syria, it was reported that Islamic State militants had re-entered Palmyra in the east of the country after advancing to its outskirts for the first time since losing the city earlier this year.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said militants had earlier taken strategic heights overlooking Palmyra and captured the northern part of the historic ancient city and major silos and mountains around it.

Meanwhile, the US defence secretary announced that 200 more military personnel would be sent to Syria to join the 300 already involved in the fight against Islamic State in the caliphate’s Syrian capital, Raqqa.

Speaking at talks on Middle East security in Bahrain, Ash Carter said the deployment would include advisers and bomb disposal experts. But the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance, said the US soldiers would be “on the frontlines” of the push for Raqqa and claimed that one had died.

“US forces were on the frontlines of the first phase of this offensive, and one member of these forces was killed. Their participation will be even more effective alongside our forces in the second phase,” said an SDF spokesman, Talal Sello.

Carter also made one of his most direct attacks yet on his Middle Eastern partners for not lending more military muscle to the fight against Isis while complaining about American efforts. He suggested US politicians had been angered by disingenuous criticism.

Carter said: “I would ask you to imagine what US military and defence leaders think when they have to listen to complaints sometimes that we should do more, when it’s plain to see that all too often, the ones complaining aren’t doing enough themselves.”

He said it was not unreasonable for Washington to expect regional powers to do more to help fight extremism, “particularly in the political and economic aspects of the campaign”.

He noted how many Sunni-led Gulf countries were concerned about the spread of Iranian influence: “If countries in the region are worried about Iran’s destabilising activities – a concern the United States shares – they need to get in the game,” Carter said. “That means getting serious about starting to partner more with each other.”