Switzerland demands immediate halt to hostilities in Syria
Syrian opposition fighters stand on a seized Syrian army armoured vehicle on the outskirts of Hama, Syria, December 3, 2024.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Switzerland demands immediate halt to hostilities in Syria
The Swiss foreign ministry has called for an immediate end to hostilities in Syria. International humanitarian law must be respected, it declared via the social media platform X on Tuesday.
The Swiss ministry said the civilian population and humanitarian personnel must be protected, and called for “safe and unhindered humanitarian access”. A credible peace process is “more urgent than ever”, it added on X.
Fighting has suddenly escalated in Syria. Syrian rebels captured Aleppo, the country’s second largest city, last week in an attack initiated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Formerly known as the Nusra Front, it was al-Qaeda’s official wing in Syria until breaking ties in 2016. It is sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council.
The front line has now shifted around 130 kilometres south of the city of Hama. Fierce fighting is reportedly taking place in the area surrounding the city. Rebels are said to have captured at least ten villages and towns. Syria’s armed forces have allegedly increased their troop presence and responded with dozens of airstrikes on the rebels.
According to information from activists, at least 27 people were killed in fighting around the strategically important town on Tuesday, as reported by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is monitoring the war in the country with a network of informants.
The devastating war in Syria has been going on for over a decade and divided the country. President Bashar al-Assad’s government most recently controlled around two-thirds of the country with the help of its allies Russia and Iran.
Translated from German by DeepL/sb
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
In Switzerland more people are being referred to electrical therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Are there similar approaches where you live?
Pope was a person full of respect: Swiss president
This content was published on
Swiss president Karin Keller-Sutter, who is attending the funeral of Pope Francis, says the pontiff was always full of respect.
Ex-sect member sentenced in Zurich for sexual abuse
This content was published on
Zurich District Court has sentenced a former member of the globally active sect "Children of God" to a partial prison sentence.
SNB chairman does not rule out slowdown in Swiss growth
This content was published on
Martin Schlegel, chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), does not rule out a weakening of the Swiss economy in light of the tariff dispute.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.