U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered the message in a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during which he emphasized that Washington expects Moscow to use its influence on Syrian President Bashar Assad “to allow United Nations humanitarian convoys to reach Aleppo and other areas in need”, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
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The deal has somewhat quieted the bombs over Syria’s second city Aleppo, but aid convoys have not been allowed to reach the roughly 250,000 civilians besieged by government forces.
The UN Security Council has demanded that all parties to the conflict in Syria allow aid workers swift and safe access to people in need, and external actors, notably the United States and Russian Federation, should pressure the Syrian government to allow unhindered aid, particularly in areas hardest hit by the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expressing frustration at Washington’s refusal to publish the Syrian cease-fire deal reached with Russia, but says Moscow won’t unilaterally release it.
“We are working on it”, he told reporters in NY, adding that he thought it should be adopted when the Security Council meets on Syria next Wednesday. “It is particularly regrettable”. “We are losing time, these are days which we should have used for convoys to move with the permit to go because there is no fighting”.
Speaking at a briefing Friday, senior Russian General Staff official Viktor Poznikhir said that Syrian government forces were first to withdraw from the strategic Castello road into Aleppo under the latest US-Russian agreement on Syria.
The cease-fire has largely held since it went into effect on Monday, bringing calm to much of the country despite dozens of alleged violations on both sides.
It aims to halt fighting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel factions, but does not include jihadists like the Islamic State group (IS). Lavrov has said that Russian Federation would like to publish details of the cease-fire deal he hammered out with Kerry last week but that there are USA objections to such a move.
Aid deliveries are a key part of the U.S. -Russia deal that imposed the cease-fire that started Monday. “We heard today from the Russians that that is already taking place”.
Castello Road, nicknamed “Death Road” is said to be the only way into rebel-held neighborhoods in eastern Aleppo.
SANA also reported violations of the cease-fire in the northwestern villages of Foua, saying sniper fire by insurgents wounded a Syrian boy there.
But hours later Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov slammed the United States for what he called “rhetorical fog” intended “to hide the fact that it is not fulfilling its part of the obligations”.
Up to 275,000 people in east Aleppo have been cut off from assistance since early July.
“There is great fear because the regime exploits every opportunity”, Zakaria Malahifji of the Aleppo-based rebel group Fastaqim told Reuters news agency.
Putin said Washington apparently “has the desire to keep the capabilities to fight the lawful government of President Assad”, calling it a “very unsafe path”.
That casualty toll is according to Deir el-Zour 24, an activist collective.
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The US, it added, had not yet compelled rebels to separate themselves on the ground from allied fighters from Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a jihadist group known as al-Nusra Front until it formally broke off ties with al-Qaeda in July.
