More than 500 Syrian civilians have been killed in a single week, mostly in government and Russian air raids and shelling, across several cities in the war-torn country.
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Last week senior Chinese military official Guan Youfei met with Syria’s defence minister in Damascus and said he wanted closer military ties with the Syrian government, according to state media.
“I have underscored that up to 275,000 people in eastern Aleppo have been nearly entirely cut off from vital supplies, including food, water, medicine, and electricity for over a month”, he added.
United Nations officials have said that the fighting in Aleppo – pitting Syrian government forces and their Russian backers against an array of insurgents, including Islamist militants – has left 275,000 people in rebel-held eastern Aleppo completely cut off from food, water and medicine, and has severely limited aid deliveries to 1.5 million people in government-held western Aleppo.
Russia, which backs Syrian forces with airpower, said on Thursday it supported the truce.
Since last month, the United Nations has been asking for weekly 48-hour pauses in the fighting in Aleppo in order to get aid in and the sick and injured out.
“This can not be a one-sided offer”, O’Brien said. “Once we have the green light we can start to move assistance within 48 to 72 hours”.
The UN submitted to Syrian authorities a request to reach almost 1 million residents in August, but received approval for less than half of the requested locations, and not a single aid convoy has moved in August, O’Brien told the Council.
The EU says the escalation of violence in Aleppo, the continuous bombardments and the sieges that have put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrians in further danger and is hindering the efforts of the worldwide community both to provide humanitarian aid and to support a political solution to the conflict.
The UN has a new route into government-held western Aleppo and has delivered some aid, he said. Another 20 trucks are prepared to deliver food and other supplies to eastern Aleppo when a ceasefire goes into effect.
O’Brien urged all countries with influence, in particular the United States and Russian Federation, which co-chair the global group backing the peace process in Syria, to rapidly reach agreement on a ceasefire deal.
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“This is a race against time, as fighting rages on, with ever more shocking reports of bombed hospitals and wrecked schools”, O’Brien said.
