Merkel hopes U.N. will agree on Syria ceasefire this evening

Reuters

23 February 2018 at 2:22 pm

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a statement after a European Union leaders informal summit in Brussels, Belgium February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Eric Vidal

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday she hoped that the United Nations Security Council would agree a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Syria to allow humanitarian aid in.

"President Macron and I wrote a letter regarding the terrible situation in eastern Ghouta and in Syria. That means we have urged Russia President (Vladimir) Putin to do everything possible so that the U.N. Security Council can adopt a resolution today to achieve a ceasefire," Merkel told reporters after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels

The two European Union leaders appealed to Putin -- whose military intervention in Syria gave President Bashar al-Assad the upper hand in the seven-year-old conflict -- to stop bombardments of the rebel-held pocket of eastern Ghouta.

"I really hope that this evening such a resolution can be adopted and the letter from Emmanuel Macron and me underlines the urgency of this," Merkel said.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek)

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