He said: “France is asking the United Nations and in particular the WFP (World Food Programme) to begin humanitarian air drops for all the areas in need, beginning with Daraya, Moadamiyeh and Madaya, where the civilian population including children risks dying of hunger”.
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But Ramzi Essedine Ramzi, UN deputy special envoy for Syria, said the “process that will lead to air drops has already started”.
Barring that, however, air drops would be the next step, he said.
The government siege of a Damascus suburb was broken Wednesday with delivery of medical supplies and a small amount of baby food, after Syria agreed to allow an worldwide aid convoy to enter the area for the first time since 2012.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said a temporary ceasefire, which it called a “regime of calm”, had taken effect from June 1 for 48 hours in the Damascus suburb to allow for the distribution of humanitarian aid to civilians.
“If we don’t see substantial change, then we definitely are waiting for those air drops to happen as a sign of the seriousness and the commitment of the global community”, Kodmani said.
Both towns are besieged by Syrian forces.
The U.N. will formally talk about whether the obligation of access has been met.
The joint U.N., International Committee of the Red Cross, and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy that reached Daraya on Wednesday contained medicines, vaccines, baby formula and “nutritional items for children”, the Red Cross said, but no food.
Humanitarian aid adviser Jan Egeland and Ramzy Ramzy, a deputy to United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura, spoke to reporters in Geneva on Thursday. Less than a month ago, a convoy was turned away by government forces.
“It’s too little, too late”, said Matthew Rycroft, the British ambassador to the United Nations, referring to Wednesday’s deliveries.
An estimated 8,000 people live in Daraya, one of the first towns in Syria to erupt in anti-government demonstrations in 2012 and one of the first under a strict regime siege the same year.
USA military, intelligence and diplomatic talks with Russian Federation, the main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have intensified, according to several senior US officials who discussed the situation but were not authorized to speak on the record.
The two United Nations officials said fighting near the northern city of Idlib is jeopardizing a vaccination campaign there.
He said hundreds of thousands of Syrian need “sustained and regular” access to aid.
These bombs are used by the Assad regime and consist of barrels packed with explosives. A suicide bomb attack killed at least one person and wounded another three in the regime stronghold of Latakia in northwestern Syria, state television said.
A humanitarian convoy reached a starving suburb of Syria’s capital, Damascus, for the first time since 2012 on Wednesday but did not carry any food, as the opposition called for a countrywide cease-fire for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and aid access for all Syrians. “But we didn’t have even that for most types of medicine”.
The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance had seized 20 villages outside the town, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“Every day there is a delay, more people die”, said a Security Council diplomat.
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The US-backed SDF last week launched an offensive north of the jihadists’ Syrian stronghold of Raqa city.
