-Russian agreement. The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, says hundreds of U.N. trucks are at the Turkish border crossing point of Cilvegozu, but can not move without written permission from the government – permission, Mistura says, that Russia guaranteed earlier this week.
Advertisement
The UN special envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said the Syrian government had not provided facilitation letters that had been agreed as part of the ceasefire deal, meaning that 40 trucks full of humanitarian supplies were halted at the Turkish border.
“We could today”, said Egeland, who also chastised the Syrian government for not delivering the authorisation letters.
“We are still optimistic this will happen, but no one knows”, he said. “At the same time, the “moderate opposition” led by the USA is increasing the amount of attacks on residential districts”.
But while violence had reduced significantly, de Mistura harshly criticised Damascus for failing to produce the promised permits allowing aid convoys to move into besieged areas in the war-ravaged country.
“The Syrian army. began the staged withdrawal of vehicles and personnel from the Castello Road to ensure the unimpeded delivery of aid to eastern Aleppo”, said Lieut-Gen Vladimir Savchenko, head of the Russian reconciliation centre in Syria on state television.
Meanwhile, Russia on Thursday accused Washington of failing to meet its obligations under the Syria ceasefire agreement, while criticizing United States officials for voicing skepticism over cooperation with Moscow.
Russia, said on Wednesday it was preparing for the Syrian army and rebel fighters to begin a staged withdrawal from the Castello road.
For more than five years, Castello Road has been partitioned between government forces and rebels who seek to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner acknowledged Wednesday that the situation hadn’t been flawless.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has not recorded a single civilian or combatant death from fighting in the first 48 hours of a ceasefire in Syria which came into effect on Monday night.
Russian Federation wants the UN Security Council to endorse the Syrian ceasefire agreement that it brokered together with the United States.
Government forces seized control of a section of the Castello Road in July, part of its effort to fully encircle the opposition-held eastern half of Aleppo.
Mistura elaborated that the United Nations has almost 40 trucks sitting in Turkey with humanitarian aid, but Assad has refused to issue paperwork allowing them to pass into Syria.
CNN senior worldwide correspondent Frederik Pleitgen reached the government-controlled part of Aleppo on Thursday and said the area was as calm as he’d ever seen it. He said the terms of the ceasefire, particularly the flow of humanitarian aid, must be met before the joint center can be discussed.
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.
That casualty toll is according to Deir el-Zour 24, an activist collective.
“What we had hoped was that the Russians and the Americans by now would have told the [Syrian] government and armed [Syrian] opposition groups that this is the way that it should be and that we would have had the access that we needed by now”, Egeland said.
The lack of permission was “a very major disappointment” even for Syria’s ally Russia, Mr de Mistura said. Earlier, the Russian General Staff also called for extending the truce, although it reported a significant number of violations by various militant groups.
Advertisement
“Russia has from the first minute fulfilled its obligations to enforce the cease-fire regime on Syrian territory”, Konashenkov said, according to Russia’s state-run Sputnik News.
