Arab League welcomes UN resolution on Aleppo

Arab foreign ministers welcomed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution to quickly deploy UN observers to Aleppo, the Arab League said in a statement late Monday.

The UN Security Council unanimously called for UN officials to monitor evacuations from eastern Aleppo and the safety of civilians who remain in the Syrian city.

The 15-member council adopted a French-drafted resolution that "demands all parties to provide these monitors with safe, immediate and unimpeded access."

The Arab League then called for working fast to establish a full cease-fire in Aleppo in accordance with the Security Council resolution, according to the statement issued following an emergency meeting in Cairo over Aleppo.

"The civilians must be allowed to leave Aleppo with dignity and to choose their destination freely, and to return back once the conflict is over," the statement said.

The Arab ministers also expressed its "deep concern for the evil aggression" launched by the Syrian regime and its allies against unarmed civilians in Aleppo, and condemned terrorism in all its forms and crimes committed against civilians by "Islamic groups."

They called for "full cease-fire in Aleppo" according to the UNSC resolution.

Residents of east Aleppo, a rebel base since 2012, had already lived under four months of siege when Syria's army began in mid-November to retake the whole city.

Tens of thousands of people fled eastern Aleppo in the past couple of weeks, with local media reporting the number at 85,000 civilians.

The whole evacuation comes as the Syrian army has captured 99 percent of eastern Aleppo over the past three weeks.

The Syrian army said last week that its operations will continue until Aleppo is completely freed from the rebels' control.

Since it erupted in March 2011, the Syrian crisis has claimed the lives of about 500,000 people and displaced more than 10 million.

source: Xinhua