“I’ve urged the Russian government to make sure that they exercise influence on the Syrian government, and also the American side to make sure that Syrian armed groups, they also fully cooperate”, Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general, said on Wednesday.
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Twenty lorries loaded with much-needed food and other aid have been awaiting clearance at the Turkish border since Wednesday for the journey to Aleppo.
“It’s crucially important [that] the necessary security arrangements should be given so that they can be allowed to cross the lines”, he said.
He said he had been in touch with the Russian government, urging them to exercise influence on the Syrian government to let the trucks in, and with the Americans to get Syrian armed groups to cooperate.
The deal calls for the demilitarization of the Castello Road route into the city, and Russian Federation said Syrian troops were set to begin withdrawing by 0600 GMT on Thursday.
Just hours before the first of the rolling, 48-hour ceasefires was due to run out at sunset, Russia, which brokered the truce with the United States, called for it to be extended for another two days.
Forces loyal to the Syrian government took over the road in July, and opposition fighters’ attempts to retake it have failed.
Staffan de Mistura, the U.N.’s special envoy for Syrian, blamed the Assad regime for the obstruction given the government’s previous blockades against aid deliveries.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that the dead include 59,000 government troops and more than 86,000 civilians.
“We also note that some groups controlled by the United States, such as Ahrar al-Sham, have openly stated their unwillingness to cease fire”, Poznikhir said.
Aid convoys moved into the Turkish border town of Cilvegozu, waiting authorization from the Syrian government to enter the country and deliver supplies to eastern Aleppo. These are days which we should have used for convoys to move with the permits to go because there is no fighting”, said De Mistura, adding that the Assad regime should hand over the permits, “immediately.
Aid convoys bringing relief to the starving and desperate of war-ravaged Syria remained stuck at the border on Wednesday despite a ceasefire holding for the third day.
The U.S. has backed some anti-government rebels, while Russian Federation a year ago intervened on the side of the Syrian government.
But one main highway stands in the way of delivering aid to rebel-held eastern Aleppo: Castello Road.
But once the joint Russian-US targeting begins, government war planes “will no longer be able to fly in any areas of Syria where there is opposition or Al-Nusra Front presence”, a senior US administration official said on Tuesday.
Congress authorized the ban on military cooperation after Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea.
There appeared to be no progress on another key element of the agreement: unhindered aid access throughout the country, particularly to areas like rebel-held east Aleppo.
“We got a further assurance [from Russian Federation and the United States] that the issue of facilitation letters is a major disappointment even for them”.
But there remains deep skepticism about whether the truce will hold.
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The ceasefire deal calls for a halt to the violence between the Syrian regime and rebel forces, but does not cover militant groups considered terrorists, such as ISIS and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al Nusra Front. “That is what makes a difference for the people, apart from seeing no more bombs or mortar shelling taking place”.
