Russian Federation needs to improve its plans to help 300,000 civilians beseiged in the Syrian city of Aleppo and should consider letting the United Nations take over parts of the aid operation, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Friday.
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The Syrian government and its powerful Russian allies laid out a road map Thursday for subduing the rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo by opening corridors for civilians to flee and offering amnesty to insurgents who lay down their arms.
Mr Shoigu stated that Moscow would welcome the co-operation of worldwide aid organisations active in Syria in the Russia-led humanitarian operation.
Syrian army soldiers patrol the area around the entrance of Bani Zeid after taking control of the previously rebel-held district of Leramun, on the northwest outskirts of Aleppo.
Ghaith Yaqout Al Murjan, an activist in Aleppo told Reuters civilians were avoiding the corridors as they were still unsafe: “There are people who want to leave because they can no longer bear the shelling by helicopters, jets, barrel bombs…”
De Mistura has confirmed that several Russian and, probably American, military experts are on their way to Geneva.
He stressed that the Russian and Syrian proposal was still a draft, and that Moscow had shown willingness to heed outside advice on its humanitarian plan.
The United Nations says food will run out within weeks for the people trapped inside, and has been trying to negotiate regular pauses in the fighting to allow humanitarian access.
The encirclement of rebel-held eastern Aleppo sets the stage for a drawn-out siege with potentially huge implications for the future of the armed opposition to President Bashar Assad.
“However, we won’t allow under any circumstances additional arms supplies from outside to the areas controlled by militants”, he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that in the last three days, representatives of 77 inhabited areas in Aleppo had signed truce agreements. “They have also bombed hospitals and vital places in order to force people into submission”. “We will thoroughly analyze de Mistura’s initiatives, many of which deserve support, and will give our comments”, he said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said airstrikes in Kafr Takhareem village in Idlib hit a hospital and a centre for civil defence volunteers.
Alun McDonald, Save the Children regional media manager, said in a separate statement: “There are initial reports of some casualties among patients and staff, although numbers are so far unconfirmed”.
“Around 12 people managed to use the Bustan al-Qasr corridor before rebel groups reinforced security measures and prevented families from approaching the corridors”, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Once Syria’s commercial hub, Aleppo has been divided between government forces in the west and rebels in the east since fighting erupted for control of the city in mid-2012.
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It later reported unidentified air strikes on the rebel-held town of Atareb in Aleppo province that killed 10 people and wounded many other seriously, calling the raids a “new massacre”.
