Could the guns soon fall silent in the city of Aleppo?

Syria’s Foreign Minister, Walid Al-Moualem meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, has proposed a ceasefire in the city that some rebels have said they would respect.

This potential confidence-building measure comes in the run up to the so-called Geneva II peace conference on Syria which is due to take place in Switzerland next week.

There is still some jockeying over who will attend the conference and under what conditions.

Syria’s opposition has still not committed to the conference. Iran wants to take part, but will not if conditions are set on its attendance. Meanwhile the Syrian government is insisting the conference be about fighting terrorism rather than finding a political settlement to the nearly three year-old conflict.