Moscow launched Monday the executive phase of the “Aleppo scenario” in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta by announcing it will establish a humanitarian corridor and implement a five-hour daily truce to help the evacuation of civilians. The Russian announcement came after a United Nations Security Council resolution demanded an immediate 30-day ceasefire across the country. Moscow said that Syrian regime forces might stop attacking terrorist targets during the truce. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was cited by the RIA news agency as saying that President Vladimir Putin had ordered a ceasefire from 9 am to 2 pm each day in Eastern Ghouta, a rebel bastion near the capital and which has been under regime siege since 2013. The enclave had for over a week been the victim of heavy regime air strikes, which has left hundreds of people dead and injured. Shoigu added that a humanitarian corridor would be opened to help civilians leave the area, where 400,000 people are living under siege and bombardment. According to observers, Monday’s development revealed, once again, Russia’s capacity to influence the regime and the political and field developments in Syria. The five-hour truce coincides with the arrival of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to Moscow in an unscheduled visit to mainly discuss the Syrian file. Separately on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Ankara must respect the Syria truce and stop its attack on Afrin. During a telephone call between the two leaders, Macron said the ceasefire "involved all Syrian territory, including Afrin, and must be put into effect everywhere and by everyone without delay.” Turkey said however it had deployed Special Forces in Afrin in anticipation of a "new fight" against the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). On January 20, Ankara lunched a military operation against the YPG in Afrin in northern Syria.