U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are likely to discuss safe passage for rebels out of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo at a meeting in Hamburg, Germany on Wednesday, a U.S. official said.

However, as of a couple of days ago, moderate opposition groups with whom U.S. officials had been in contact were "less than inclined" to make any such deals, the official said, on condition of anonymity.

Kerry is due to meet with Lavrov on Wednesday evening in Hamburg.

The Syrian army and allied forces have made rapid gains against insurgents in the past two weeks and look closer than ever to restoring full control over Aleppo, Syria's most populous city before the war, and achieving their most important victory of the conflict now in its sixth year.

But rebel groups in Aleppo have told the United States they will not leave their shrinking enclave, a senior rebel official told Reuters earlier.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source:
courtesy of REUTERS

by Reuters

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