The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad continues to keep shipments of humanitarian aid from entering the country – a violation of the newly-implemented cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russian Federation, two U.N. officials said Thursday.
Advertisement
Staffan de Mistura said a U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire deal agreed on last week has largely reduced the violence since it came into effect on Monday, but the humanitarian aid flow that was expected to follow has not materialized.
The UN said trucks loaded with aid were for a second day in a buffer zone between Turkey and Syria, voicing hope the supplies could be delivered to besieged rebel-held districts of Aleppo city on Friday.
The Syrian government agreed last week to allow humanitarian aid into five areas before the ceasefire deal was signed, according to de Mistura.
Under the deal, if the cease-fire holds for seven days and humanitarian deliveries are allowed into areas besieged by the Syrian army, the us and Russian Federation would set up a so-called Joint Implementation Center to focus on the militants and share basic targeting data.
“That is what makes a difference for the people, apart from seeing no more bombs or mortar shelling taking place”, he said of the aid deliveries that are supposed to be part of the truce deal.
“The challenge we continue to face, and this is the very sad reality, is ensuring all parties to the conflict, and those with influence over them, are in agreement”, he said. “It is particularly regrettable”. “These are days which we should have used for convoys to move with the permit to go because there is no fighting”, he stressed.
A senior Russian officer, Vladimir Savchenko, said later on Thursday that Syrian government forces had begun “a gradual withdrawal of military hardware and all personnel” – although this was denied by a rebel fighter on the ground.
The first civilian deaths since a cease-fire took effect in Syria were reported Thursday, while opposing sides in the conflict continued to hold back aid deliveries to hundreds of thousands of people.
The observatory said the army had started to withdraw from positions on the road, but Russian troops, whose air force has helped Damascus to blockade rebel-held Aleppo, had replaced it.
In rebel-controlled eastern Aleppo, where around 250,000 civilians are besieged by government forces, people are badly in need of food and supplies.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said it had documented attacks by both sides, and that despite widespread calm between rebels and the army, the first civilians had been killed since the truce began on Monday.
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.
But Mr de Mistura said that on the Castello road at least, that was not allowed under the ceasefire deal. Thursday, another United Nations official reaffirmed that contention.
“The trucks are ready and sealed, and the agreement is that once they move they will not be harassed and they will not be investigated and they will be moving along that road”, De Mistura said. “We shall wait and see what happens”. The U.N. estimates about a quarter million people are trapped inside.
SANA also reported violations in the northwestern village of Foua, saying insurgent sniper fire wounded a Syrian boy.
Also not included in the truce is the al-Qaida affiliate in Syria, Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.
United Nations aid trucks are waiting north of Aleppo in Turkey, but a Syrian security source told AFP on Wednesday that the regime had yet to withdraw its forces from the key Castello Road running to the Turkish border.
Advertisement
According to US officials, if Russian Federation and the regime fulfill their obligations under the arrangement, Washington and Moscow will hold bilateral talks on potential military cooperation against Daesh and also Nusrah Front, which recently detached itself with al-Qaeda and rebranded itself as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
