United Nations Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura stopped in Cairo on Wednesday, fresh from his second visit to Syria since his appointment in July. De Mistura met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who emphasised a "political solution… as the only way out of the current impasse", to discuss the latest developments in Syria. The bloody conflict that has raged since 2011 has forced over 3 million to flee their homes, according to the UN Refugee Agency, and poses a regional threat to stability. It is evidenced most notably in the rise of extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) that now controls large swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria. During recent visit to Syria, de Mistura was attempting to help broker a ceasefire in Aleppo, which Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said is worth consideration. Speaking at a press conference in Damascus on Tuesday de Mistura said the proposal of a "freeze" in the fighting in Aleppo "is a concrete and realistic one". The UN reported in October that the death toll in the Syrian conflict surpassed 200,000. De Mistura is the third UN envoy to be appointed to find a solution to the civil war in Syria. He has been preceded by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, who resigned from the position in May.
