Syrian President Bashar al Assad says a U.N. proposal for a cease-fire in rebel-contested Aleppo was "worth studying."
The statement was released by state media Monday, after talks between the Syrian leader and the proposal's author, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura in Damascus.
Assad said the plan would need to be worked on to achieve its goals of "returning security" to the embattled city.
De Mistura's plan, first proposed late last month, envisions a freeze in fighting to allow for humanitarian aid through a series of small-scale, locally-negotiated truces.
A series of U.N. envoys has tried without success to resolve Syria's civil war, which has claimed some 200,000 lives since 2011.
Among the most recent casualties were five nuclear scientists, shot and killed Sunday in an otherwise peaceful suburb of Damascus. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four of those killed in the ambush were Syrian, while the fifth was from Iran.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack.
