Women, Children Allowed to Leave Homs Area: Brahimi
Local Editor
The Syrian government will allow women and children to leave area of Homs, International envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi announced on Sunday.
"Hopefully, starting tomorrow [Monday] women and children will be able to leave the old city in Homs," Brahimi said Sunday in the UN headquarters in Geneva where the international peace conference on Syria has been taking place.
The Algerian envoy also hoped a humanitarian convoy from the UN and the Red Cross would be able to go to Homs on Monday.
Brahimi said that the foreign -backed opposition had agreed to give the government lists of detainees held by armed groups.
He said it was "too early" to assess the prospects of a comprehensive deal.
He admitted the talks were proceeding slowly but said that on Monday he "expected the two parties to make some general statement about the way forward".
For his part, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said women and children were free to leave old Homs, noting the armed groups were preventing them from leaving.
Mikdad said he hoped arrangements could be made with local officials to allow the convoy access but that the aid must not fall into "the hands of terrorists".
Brahimi said that the government would allow women and children to leave immediately but had asked for a list of adult male civilians who wanted to leave to ensure they were not fighters.
"You know that the center of the city has been under siege for a very, very long time and now I hope that we are approaching a solution for at least the civilians," he said.
No direct words had been exchanged between the delegations but the two sides were talking to each other through him, Brahimi said.
Source: News Agencies, edited by website team
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