The United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said the U.S. and Russian Federation were expected to manage the disengagement of forces from the road, but also criticised Damascus for failing to provide permits needed to make aid deliveries to other areas.
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The United States and Russian Federation agree on the value of extending the cessation of hostilities that began on Monday despite some continuing violence, Kirby said, but added that Kerry “expressed concerns about the repeated and unacceptable delays of humanitarian aid” during his conversation with Lavrov.
The UN envoy said humanitarian relief deliveries would be focused on besieged neighborhoods in rebel-controlled parts of Aleppo, the city in northern Syria that has seen increased fighting over the past few weeks.
The UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura blamed the Syrian government for the delay, saying it insisted on “facilitation letters” or permits but had failed to provide them, reneging on an agreement struck 10 days ago – before the ceasefire – to allow aid into five areas.
The United Nations, which says it asked the Syrian government for permission to reach all besieged areas, has voiced increasing frustration in recent days at the failure of the Syrian government to allow access. “It is particularly regrettable”.
Russia’s military announced Thursday evening that Syrian government forces had begun withdrawing from Castello road but didn’t confirm if Russian troops would be stationed there.
The truce has been holding despite some violations in different areas, with the Syrian opposition on Thursday reporting 46 cease-fire violations around the country.
He adds that while rebels were ready to withdraw from the area, they were also tired of the government exploiting the move to stage an advance. Among them, 160 were children, according to estimates by the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a London-based watchdog group.
On September 9, Russian Federation and the United States agreed on a milestone deal on the Syrian crisis after some 13 hours of marathon talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.
Once an agreement is reached, there would be “special checkpoints” set up for the aid convoys, he said.
Washington said it agreed that an extension was important, but also voiced alarm over the failure of aid to arrive.
Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to have offered a respite in violence in the five-year civil war that’s killed 430,000 people, according to one estimate, and touched off an worldwide refugee crisis.
Aid agencies have said they need reassurances from both government and opposition groups to use the road to deliver aid.
Forty aid trucks carrying food supplies for 80,000 people had been waiting on the border with Turkey to get into the rebel held east of Aleppo where an estimated 250,000 people are living under siege by government forces.
Aid deliveries are part of a U.S. -Russia deal that imposed a cease-fire, which started Monday.
The Islamic State-affiliated Amaq news agency also reported the strike, blaming Russian Federation.
The Britain-based Observatory said the violence stemmed from clashes between insurgents and Syrian government forces and their allies in the Jobar district on the eastern outskirts of the capital amid a government effort to advance in the area.
Elsehwere in the same province, an airstrike Thursday on the IS-held town of Mayadeen killed at least four people and wounded dozens, said opposition activists and Deir el-Zour 24, an activist collective. It wasn’t known who carried out the airstrike.
The extremists of Islamic State and al-Qaida aren’t included; nobody expected them to cooperate.
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The United State is planning to transfer military assets from other parts of the world into Syria to begin coordinating airstrikes with Russian Federation against militants in the war-torn country as part of the newly implemented ceasefire deal, the Associated Press reported Friday.
