U.N. OKs Aleppo monitors as evacuations proceed

BEIRUT — The leaders of Russia and Iran, military allies of Syria’s president, talked Monday about joining forces to reach a quick political settlement in Syria, as the country’s largest city, Aleppo, was poised to return to full government control.

Syrian state TV said it expected the evacuation of thousands of civilians and fighters from the last opposition footholds in Aleppo to be completed by early Tuesday.

The departure of the last rebels from Aleppo would close another chapter in Syria’s civil war and would give President Bashar Assad a significant symbolic and strategic victory.

Almost six years after the outbreak of an armed rebellion against Assad, the Syrian leader will be in charge again of the country’s five largest cities and the Mediterranean coast.

The presidents of Russia and Iran spoke by phone Monday to discuss the next moves. The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani “underlined the need for joint efforts to launch a real political process aimed at a quick settlement in Syria.”

The leaders noted that a quick launch of talks between the Syrian government and the opposition in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, would be an important step toward that goal, a Kremlin statement said.

The conversation came a day before a scheduled meeting of foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran in Moscow. Russia and Iran have backed Assad, while Turkey has supported the opposition.

In the Turkish capital of Ankara, meanwhile, the Russian ambassador was shot and killed by a man shouting, “Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria!” The gunman fired at least eight shots, killing Ambassador Andrei Karlov, 62, at an embassy sponsored exhibition, and was then shot dead by police.

At the United Nations, officials said more than 100 U.N. humanitarian staff on the ground in Syria, most of them Syrian nationals, could start monitoring the Aleppo evacuations. Earlier Monday, the U.N. Security Council had approved a resolution urging the immediate deployment of the monitors, following a French-Russian compromise over the text.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there will also be observers from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Crescent.

France said the monitors were needed to prevent “mass atrocities” from being committed by Syrian government forces.

The resolution also demands that all parties allow unconditional and immediate access for the U.N. and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid and medical care, and “respect and protect all civilians across Aleppo and throughout Syria.”