After talks in Russian Federation and Austria last month failed to yield a breakthrough, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator and top envoys in Syria issued a statement in Damascus on Tuesday calling for a month-long truce.
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On February 6 United Nations war crimes investigators say they are investigating reports that chemical weapons have been used in Saraqeb in Idlib and in Douma in Eastern Ghouta. A local official, Khalil Aybour, put the toll at 53.
The conflict, which has continued for nearly seven years, has killed more than 300,000 people and displaced millions.
“Today there is no safe area at all”.
“Right now, we have people under the rubble, the targeting is ongoing, warplanes on residential neighbourhoods”.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels launch an attack on the capital Damascus from its suburb of Ghouta in July 2012, more than a year after the start of an uprising against the regime. Heavy strikes killed dozens of civilians.
“For the last two months, we have not had a single (aid-delivery) convoy”.
The U.N. mission warned in a statement on Tuesday of “dire consequences” to the humanitarian crises in the country, and identified seven areas requiring urgent humanitarian relief.
The call between Putin and Rouhani was also an opportunity for both leaders to highlight their common strategic goals – particularly in Syria, where Russian Federation and Iran remain the principal backers of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
“Scenes of entire buildings, housing whole families crashing down with the residents – women, children and men – still inside have become a frequent image”, Abu Salem al-Shami, a resident and activist, told Al Jazeera by phone from Eastern Ghouta.
They said civilians in Idlib were being forced to move repeatedly to escape fighting, noting that two pro-government villages in Idlib also continued to be besieged by rebels.
Airwars, an independent group that monitors civilian casualties caused by airstrikes, says between 77 and 100 civilians have been killed so far in the Afrin operation – 14 to 22 by YPG fire in Syria and Turkey, and 63 to 79 by Turkey in the Afrin countryside.
“We are talking to the regional countries and countries outside the region to resolve issues”, Rouhani said, underlining that people of the region should themselves decide about their future.
The sources confirmed that Ankara hopes to keep its coordination with Iran, which signed with Russian Federation and Turkey a memorandum on setting up de-escalation zones in Syria, entered into force on May 6, 2017.
The UN said it was looking into the reports of chemical attacks and condemned what it described as an escalation in violence in Ghouta and Idlib. And rescue workers and doctors on the ground in Idlib have accused government forces of using chlorine bombs in the offensive.
“We implore the worldwide community to speak with one voice, taking every opportunity to publicly pressure the Assad regime, and its supporters, to cease its use of chemical weapons”, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Monday night.
A separate catastrophe for civilians is unfolding in the Kurdish-majority area of Afrin, on Syria’s northern border.
Over the years, PJAK, the terrorist group PKK’s Iranian off-shoot, has killed a number of Iranian security forces in clashes.
The overnight attack, which a USA military official earlier said killed about 100 of the attackers, added another layer to the Syrian conflict that is once again plunging into a new and unpredictable spiral of violence.
“Then you have calculations against Turkey”.
Notably, Idlib falls within a network of de-escalation zones – endorsed by Turkey, Russia and Iran – in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
The Russians said they first and foremost wanted to determine “what type of missile was used in the attack”, for which they needed to analyze the engine, Turkish media reported quoting government sources.
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It was the second attack on the soldiers in a week.
