Syrian President Assad is calling for reinforcements as fighting forces Aleppo's residents indoors and rebels promise to protect civilians. The UN special envoy to Syria says the situation poses a grave threat to stability in the region, as CGTN’s Rahul Pathak explains.
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00:00Well, a day after the Syrian military were forced into that humiliating withdrawal from Aleppo by those rebel forces,
00:06a UK-based group, which has been monitoring the conflict,
00:09have confirmed that for the first time since the civil war began in 2011,
00:13the Syrian government no longer has control of its second largest city.
00:17I mean, I can't underestimate or underestimate how huge and how significant that is,
00:22and what a massive challenge that is to the Syrian leadership of Bashar al-Assad.
00:26Now, he's ordered reinforcements to the region in an attempt to prevent any further advances by opposition fighters.
00:35Added to that, as you said, has been really, really heavy bombardment by Russian and Syrian fighter jets
00:40over the city of Idlib, Hama, as well as Aleppo itself, and that has resulted in civilian casualties,
00:46although the Syrian government insists that they are attacking insurgent positions.
00:50The fighting has forced many local residents in Aleppo to stay indoors,
00:54although the main group behind the rebel offensive insists they are trying to minimise the impact of their advance on the civilian population.
01:02It seems, as of now, the leaders of the armed groups, I mean, the leader of Tehran, HDS,
01:10they give clear instructions to their fighters not to harm any civilians,
01:16not to attack any properties, to just to try to control the city militarily.
01:22I think they are, in a way, inspired by Taliban experience in Afghanistan, so they are trying to copy that model.
01:32Rahul, it's happening at an interesting time geopolitically.
01:36The region is particularly sensitive.
01:38We know that Russia has been engaged against Ukraine, now scrambling to assist Syria.
01:44What is the latest on the diplomatic front?
01:46Well, Syria's two main backers, Iran and Russia, have reiterated their support for the Syrian government,
01:52so the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, spoke with his Russian counterpart late on Saturday to discuss the recent escalation.
02:00He's also due to visit Damascus later today, later on Sunday, to meet with Syrian officials.
02:05Meanwhile, the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria says the current fighting poses a grave threat to the stability in the region, as you were saying,
02:14and he's called for a political solution, maybe not surprisingly.
02:17Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has also been very busy.
02:20He's been speaking with his fellow Arab leaders, including King Hussein of Jordan and the President of the United Arab Emirates,
02:26both of whom expressed their support for him.
02:28But as for Assad himself, he's described the insurgency as nothing more than terrorism, and on Sunday, his words were quite chilly.
02:35He said terrorism only understood the language of force and that he would defeat it.
02:40So I think a diplomatic solution is very much the last thing on Assad's mind.