The United Nations faces “a problem” in shipping humanitarian aid into Syria, the U.N. envoy for Syria said Thursday, pinning the blame squarely on a lack of authorizations from Bashar Assad’s government that has even disappointed the Syrian president’s key backer: Russian Federation.
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However, the United Nations envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said despite the dramatic drop in violence since the cease-fire took effect on Monday, the humanitarian aid flow that was supposed to follow had not materialized.
The U.N. says it has 40 trucks ready to distribute aid in the country, and it would prioritize delivery to the embattled, rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo.
A respite in hostilities will also allow time for humanitarian aid to be delivered to the besieged city of Aleppo and areas in the Idlib Province.
“There are violations, but it has been made very clear by the United States and Russian Federation that this was expected”, said Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Kilis on the Turkish side of the border with Syria.
BEIRUT | Heavy fighting broke out in the Syrian capital between government forces and an insurgent group Friday in some of the most serious clashes since a U.S. -Russia brokered cease-fire went into effect four days earlier and brought relative calm to the war-ravaged country.
A senior Syrian rebel official in Aleppo said a withdrawal by rebel factions was under debate “because the agreement stipulates that the regime must respect the truce but that did not happen”.
However the powerful Nour el-Din el-Zinki opposition group said that government forces were still on the road, the news agency said.
Churkin said the resolution would provide “endorsement of the agreement” reached last week that allowed a ceasefire to go into effect on Monday, paving the way to aid deliveries and a possible resumption of peace talks.
A UK-based monitoring group said Russian troops were replacing Syrian government forces along the road. Humanitarian aid could arrive in rebel-held parts of Aleppo later Friday, but other obstacles remain, the group said. They are carrying enough food for 80-thousand people for a month.
“They agreed to discuss and agreed to extend the cessation for another 48 hours, obviously with the goal being that this would last seven days”, Toner said. The U.S. has said the rebels will soon need to separate themselves from the extremists.
The United States and Russian Federation announced on Saturday a landmark agreement on a week-long nationwide ceasefire in Syria from Monday.
The Observatory, meanwhile, raised the death toll from airstrikes by unidentified planes on an Islamic State-controlled area in Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria to 23, among them nine children.
The aid impasse came as Russian Federation put pressure on the United States to release the text of the agreement, and urged the U.S. to allow it to form the basis of a UN security council resolution next week.
The AFP news agency said they have spoken to Pentagon officials who are still reluctant to trust the Russian military, with one saying: “The timeframe is short, but there’s a gulf of trust that’s larger than the timeframe”.
The United Nations has described the truce as a “critical window of opportunity” to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo city, where around 250,000 civilians are under siege.
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Mazen al-Shami, an opposition activist near Damascus, said government forces tried to storm Jobar but were repelled by opposition fighters.
