UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned however that the aid could not move into Syria’s second city before the Castello Road supply route had been fully secured, as agreed in marathon US-Russia talks in Geneva last week.
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However, the United Nations says it has not yet received permits from the Syrian government to allow the trucks into opposition areas, where at least 250,000 people are in desperate need of food and medicine.
Under the terms of the Russian-US agreement, the convoy needs only to notify the government; it does not need formal permission from the Syrian government.
“This re-commitment will initially be for 48 hours, and, provided it holds, USA and Russian Federation will discuss extensions, with the aim of achieving an indefinite extension to lower the violence”, Toner explained later.
“It’s particularly regrettable because we are losing time”, said de Mistura, emphasizing the importance of getting the convoys moving during the weeklong cease-fire and calling for immediate action to unblock aid deliveries.
“We are ready to go, but the facilitation letters, the permits have not been given yet”.
He said the ceasefire appeared to be holding despite numerous breaches.
The Observatory said government forces and opposition fighters were ready to withdraw from the Castello road, a main artery into Aleppo, to hand it over to Russian troops.
He said the Kremlin expects the U.S.to do the same with rebel forces.
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.
Mayadeen is in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, near the Iraqi border.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the BBC his country was confident that Syria would honour the ceasefire agreement but had “more doubts about the opposition”.
“The permits have not been given”, Jan Egeland, chairman of the Syrian humanitarian task force, said Thursday.
Russia’s deployment on the road would mark the most overt participation of its ground forces in the Syrian war and underlines the country’s role as a major power broker.
“Our appeal is the following-it’s a simple one”, Egeland said.
“Can grown men please stop putting bureaucratic roadblocks in place to stop aid workers doing their jobs to help civilians – wounded women and children?” “So they could go on a minute’s notice”, he said, voicing hope the aid could be delivered to eastern Aleppo on Friday.
Between 250,000 and 275,000 people in east Aleppo have been cut off from assistance since early July, according to the UN. Aid is expected to enter rebel-held Aleppo later, he said. “The regime is refusing to allow aid into Aleppo”, said Aleppo-based activist Baraa al-Halaby.
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It is aimed at halting the fighting between the Syrian regime and opposition groups and includes specifying improved access for humanitarian aid and requiring the withdrawal of regime forces from the Castello road supply route. “Shelling continues, people are dying and houses are being destroyed”, senior commander Viktor Poznikhir said, hinting at renewed tensions between Moscow and Washington, who back opposing sides in the Syrian conflict. Another child died of wounds sustained earlier from sniper fire in al-Masharfeh, a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo city.
