China urges all sides to honor cease-fire

China called on Thursday for all sides in the Syrian conflict to observe UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's proposal for a Muslim holiday cease-fire.

The cease-fire for the Muslim Eid holiday is due to start on Friday and Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he welcomed the move.

"We are happy with the positive reaction to the proposal from relevant sides in Syria," he told a daily news briefing.

"We hope that all the relevant parties in Syria can take a sincere attitude and concrete action to support and cooperate with UN envoy Brahimi's proposal and his mediation efforts and seize the opportunity to earnestly implement promises to cease fire and stop the violence."

China also hopes this will be a chance "to put in place a long-term and effective cease-fire to create conditions to relieve the Syrian people's hardship and start a political dialogue and the political transition process as soon as possible", he said.

- Xinhua