U.N. peace envoy Staffan de Mistura met Monday with Syrian opposition members to discuss his plan to “freeze” fighting in the country’s war-ravaged second city Aleppo, his spokeswoman said.

Also, Israel said it would not allow “sophisticated weapons” to fall into the hands of its enemies, after claims from Syria that Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes near Damascus.

The U.N. envoy first unveiled his plan for a cease-fire in Aleppo in October, touting it as a way for desperately needed aid to reach the ruined former economic hub.

Syria’s government has said it would “study” the proposal.

Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Monday that the government wanted the cease-fire to be limited to Aleppo city, while rebels want it to extend to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.

Among the groups de Mistura met were rebels represented by Qais Sheikh, head of the Revolutionary Command Council, a coalition of several dozen moderate and Islamist opposition groups.

“All the brothers in Aleppo have accepted Qais Sheikh as their representative,” Sobhi al-Rifai, head of the council’s executive bureau, told AFP before the meeting.

“We are there for discussions and consultations, but we won’t take the decisions here.”

Rifai declined to comment on whether the rebels would seek to extend the cease-fire zone.

“It’s they [the U.N.] who proposed a cease-fire. We want to discuss the situation in all of Syria,” he said. Speaking after the talks, delegation head Sheikh told AFP that his team of seven had asked for time to consult after the discussions.

The Jewish state refused to confirm or deny Sunday’s strikes, but its forces have previously targeted weapons allegedly destined for arch-foe Hezbollah.

The two strikes Sunday, including one on the country’s main international airport, were fiercely condemned by Damascus, which called for U.N. sanctions against Israel.

Asked about the strikes on public radio, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz refused to comment directly but stressed Israel’s policy of preventing arms transfers to militant groups. “We have a firm policy of preventing all possible transfers of sophisticated weapons to terrorist organizations,” Steinitz said, in a clear reference to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

A U.N. spokesman said its observer force in the Occupied Golan Heights had witnessed “six aircraft flying in high altitude on the Alpha [Israeli] side,” two of which then crossed into Syrian airspace.

Israel has launched a series of airstrikes inside Syria since the outbreak of the country’s armed uprising in 2011, including raids reportedly targeting Iranian rockets bound for Hezbollah.

In Tehran, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said that Iran is backing the latest Russian effort to end his country’s more than three-year conflict.

A delegation of Syrian dissidents tolerated by Assad’s regime will travel to Moscow this week for meetings, days after government members discussed a new peace process there.

Moallem, after meeting his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, said at a joint news conference: “I heard Mr. Zarif support this plan. There is no doubt Iran will help achieve a political solution.”

The Syrian official also referred to the fight against ISIS, noting “there are ongoing contacts” between Iran, Iraq and Syria “because we all struggle against terrorism.”

Members of a U.S.-led coalition are ready to send roughly 1,500 security personnel to Iraq to help the Baghdad government in its fight against ISIS, the American commander of the war effort said Monday.

Coalition partners meeting last week in the region made initial pledges that would bring “close” to 1,500 forces to Iraq to train and assist the country’s army, in addition to the Americans already mobilized, Lt. Gen. James Terry told reporters in Kuwait City.

There are already about 1,500 U.S. personnel in Iraq providing security for the U.S. Embassy and advising the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces.

President Barack Obama has approved the deployment of another 1,500 to bolster the training and advising effort.

Terry said Iraqi security forces were steadily improving but remained months away from staging large-scale offensives. “While they still have a long way to go I think they’re becoming more capable every day,” he added.

ISIS meanwhile was “on the defensive, trying to hold what they had gained but still able to conduct some limited attacks out there,” he said.