Dropped from helicopters, they are hugely inaccurate and are blamed for causing hundreds if not thousands of civilian deaths in the war ravaged suburbs.
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“Of the 19 (besieged) areas, 16 are besieged by the government forces or government-aligned forces”, said Egeland.
It was up to WFP to decide when and where to carry out any airdrops, said Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, noting that the issue would be discussed at a meeting of the ISSG’s humanitarian task force scheduled for Thursday.
Humanitarian access to these areas has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed at least 280,000 people and displaced millions.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) came up with a plan to provide aid to the remaining eight restricted areas through air drop mechanisms, following approval from the regime.
“There should be airdrops where access is being denied by land”, Matthew Rycroft, British ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday.
They said the Syrian government had failed to respect a 1 June deadline for widespread aid distribution agreed by world and regional powers.
Mr Tuthill added: “The situation is also serious in other areas under siege throughout Syria.It is vital that we can deliver more aid and we urge everyone involved to allow access to humanitarian workers and facilitate the flow of assistance”.
On Wednesday land deliveries reached two towns besieged by government forces where civilians are facing food shortages.
The UN deputy special envoy for Syria, Ramzi Essedine Ramzi, said the process that would lead to air drops had already started.
On Wednesday – the day of the deadline – an aid convoy entered the besieged suburb of Daraya, less than six miles southwest of Damascus, for the first time since 2012.
The United Nations said humanitarian aid convoys with medicines and food reached the besieged areas of Daraya and Mouadamiya, where the United Nations had said children were at risk of starvation. “Daesh is using its entire means to stop the forces”, he said by telephone from near the front line, referring to the Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.
Russian Federation said on Wednesday that the local truce in Daraya would be observed until 00:01 a.m. on Friday (2101 GMT Thursday) to allow aid deliveries, but UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin later suggested that plans to air drop humanitarian relief could be put on hold.
In addition to Daraya and Moadamiyeh, areas considered by the United Nations to be besieged by the Syrian government are Zabadani, Douma, Harasta and Zamalka, all in the region of Eastern Ghouta, as well as Rastan, one of the last rebel strongholds in Homs. “The quantity is acceptable, but we need the aid to be continuous and permanent”.
About 4,000 people have been left without food aid in Darayya since 2012.
The UN had promised to plan the air drops if there had been no progress made on access by land to besieged areas by June 1.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighters had recaptured at least 16 villages from IS.
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The U.S., France and other Western countries, however, said the convoy was not enough and that the United Nations should still push ahead with airdrops.
