About 300,000 people are trapped in rebel-held eastern Aleppo, under intense bombardment.
Advertisement
Aid must reach the Aleppo residents’ houses so they may not venture out and risk their lives amid intensive air strikes, he said, also stressing that the bombing and artillery attacks on the city must cease to ensure hand-over of the necessities to the civilians.
Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, announced earlier this week that exit corridors would be opened in Aleppo for civilians and rebels.
“Our suggestion is to Russian Federation to actually leave the corridors being established at their initiative to us”, he said.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday the United Nations welcomed Russian humanitarian initiative in Syria. The minister also ordered the delivery of food, medical supplies and essentials to the people of Aleppo by air. “However, we won’t allow under any circumstances additional arms supplies from outside to the areas controlled by militants”, he said.
The Red Cross said on Thursday it welcomed any respite for civilians in Aleppo but that departures must be voluntary and the safety of those who made a decision to stay must be guaranteed.
“The clock is ticking for the Aleppo population”, he warned.
Analyst Karim Bitar from the French think-tank IRIS, also said residents of the east faced “a awful existential dilemma. between risking starvation or risking to die while fleeing”.
“Aleppo residents are in distress and mistrustful, which is understandable, as the Syrian tragedy has shown that even humanitarianism is often used as a cynical ploy to advance geopolitical interests”.
The US State Department also expressed caution, saying that the exercise appeared to be an attempt to force the evacuation of civilians and the surrender of militant groups in the city. “Not a single person left”, al-Halaby said.
Once Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been ravaged by the war that began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Meanwhile, the Britain-based charity Save the Children said a maternity hospital it supports in the northwestern Idlib province was bombed Friday, causing a number of casualties and heavy damage.
Advertisement
The Observatory said a jihadist from Al-Nusra Front, which has changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, was killed in the raid in the rebel-held town of Kafar Takharim.
