{"id":273,"date":"2016-12-01T01:09:18","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T01:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=273"},"modified":"2016-12-01T01:09:18","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T01:09:18","slug":"syrian-government-invites-aleppo-rebels-to-football-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2016\/12\/01\/syrian-government-invites-aleppo-rebels-to-football-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian government invites Aleppo rebels to football match"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Syrian government has sent text messages and dropped leaflets on Wednesday inviting rebels in eastern Aleppo to participate in a “friendly” football match, opposition activists and a member of parliament reported.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The message asked fighters to attend the game on Thursday at Hamdania Stadium, located in the western government-controlled part of the city, adding that rebels who planned to attend would be offered safe passage.<\/div>\n
The initiative is “a gesture of goodwill on the path of national reconciliation, and any citizen is welcome to participate in the game,” the message, in Arabic, read.<\/div>\n
It comes amid a heavy bombardment campaign<\/a> by the Syrian government on eastern Aleppo which has killed scores of civilians and put most hospitals and schools out of service. Over 250,000 people have been trapped<\/a> in eastern Aleppo since pro-government forces encircled the area in July.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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Those interested in participating in the game should come “via pre-organized routes”, the government’s message read.<\/div>\n
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“Diplomacy of football”<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
It is unclear if opposition fighters are accepting the invitation.<\/div>\n
In a tweet, Fares Shehabi, a Syrian parliamentarian in Aleppo and a prominent businessman allied to the Syrian regime, said: “Will the diplomacy of football succeed in ending the largest kidnapping operation of civilians [by rebels]? We hope so but are not expecting it.”<\/div>\n
Some government supporters accuse the rebels of using civilians in the city as human shields. The United Nations this week described<\/a> the bombing of rebel-held areas by the regime as “indiscriminate”.<\/div>\n
Aref al-Aref, a resident of eastern Aleppo, confirmed to CNN that text messages were sent out to some of his friends in the city.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Hamdania is currently under the control of the government, but shells fired by rebels regularly hit the area.<\/div>\n
The stadium there is the largest in Aleppo and was once a venue for international football games.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Syrian government has sent text messages and dropped leaflets on Wednesday inviting rebels in eastern Aleppo to participate in a “friendly” football match, opposition activists and a member of parliament reported. The message asked fighters to attend the game on Thursday at Hamdania Stadium, located in the western government-controlled part of the city, adding that rebels who planned to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}