The UN revealed that two aid convoys, consisting of about 20 trucks transporting mostly food and flour heading towards Aleppo, has been held up since crossing the Turkish border, Reuters reported.
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The spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, told the Interfax news service that rebel troops continued to fire artillery against government forces and had not separated themselves from units loyal to a former affiliate of al-Qaeda that both the United States and Russian Federation have deemed a terrorist organization.
More than half of Syria’s prewar population of 22.4 million have been displaced, including almost 5 million refugees who have fled the country.
So far it has produced “a significant drop in violence”, according to the UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, but a key plank of the deal calling for unhindered aid access, in particular to besieged areas of Syria, has yet to be implemented.
“This is something that is required to happen immediately”, de Mistura told reporters in Geneva.
The Syrian government has said it will reject any aid deliveries to the city not coordinated through itself and the United Nations, particularly from Turkey, which has backed the terrorists fighting the Syrian army. He says aid is expected to enter rebel-held Aleppo later Friday. “It is particularly regrettable …”
Washington said late Wednesday that US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had spoken and agreed to prolong the ceasefire which began on Monday.
Egeland said the aid is ready to move just as soon as approval is given.
“Grown, well-fed men still prevent us from coming to the real relief of civilians: women, children, wounded”, Egeland told the BBC.
A ceasefire deal agreed by Washington and Moscow that went into force at sundown on Monday calls for the demilitarisation of the Castello Road, and Moscow had earlier said the Syrian army would start pulling back at 0600 GMT on Thursday.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said one girl was killed when missiles fired by rebels fell a northern village in the southern province of Quneitra. “We hope to go tomorrow, to eastern Aleppo”. The third casualty, according to the Observatory, was a civilian who also died by sniper fire in the rebel-held part of Aleppo.
Russian Federation said the Castello Road – the key supply route into Aleppo – had come under mortar fire, threatening the withdrawal of Syrian troops which had been set to begin at 0600 GMT on Thursday, September 15. He said 20 United Nations trucks were waiting at the border “ready to go”. The withdrawals will make way for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to establish checkpoints on the road and direct aid convoys in.
On Sept. 10, the United States and Russian Federation brokered a truce across Syria that went into force on Monday.
The freeze in talks began after Russia’s annexation of Crimea more than two years ago and its continued involvement in the Ukrainian civil war.
But the monitor recorded a number of incidents of shelling by various rebel factions and of shelling and air strikes by pro-government forces around the country.
“If they do that, we’re willing and able to go to all these places in the next few days – and we are very hopeful that we will indeed be able to do so”, he added.
Jabhat Fateh al-Sham has played a vital role in recent fighting around Aleppo.
Aleppo-based activist Bahaa al-Halaby denies that government troops withdrew from Castello road.
Syrian state news agency SANA says insurgents shelled government-held areas in the eastern neighborhood of Qaboun, wounding three people. In 40 days preceding the cease-fire, 2,000 people were killed, including 700 civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the incident, but conceded they didn’t know who launched the airstrikes.
If the truce holds for seven days, Russian Federation and the United States will establish a joint center to coordinate airstrikes against terrorist groups in Syria.
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The International Syria Support Group includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany, France, Iran, as well as several European and Arab countries, and the Arab League and European Union.
