A UN airdrop of food to 200,000 people in the besieged city of Deir al-Zor failed on Wednesday, with all 21 palettes dropped by parachute either damaged, landing in no-man’s land or unaccounted for, a UN World Food Programme spokeswoman said.
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Fighting had raged across much of western Syria right up until the agreement came into effect, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told RIA Novosti that Russia and the United States were in talks over the preparation of the draft UN Security Council resolution.
‘We are certain that there will continue to be fighting, ‘ Obama said, noting that ISIS, the al Nusra Front and other militant groups are not part of the negotiations and the truce.
In order to promote the implementation of the cessation of hostilities, a Cease-fire Task Force co-chaired by the United States and Russian Federation has been established under U.N. auspices.
De Mistura said he would brief the Security Council at 2000 GMT by video link from Geneva, before addressing the media in Geneva. Also at the press conference was his top humanitarian adviser, Jan Egeland.
Jan Egeland, a special advisor to De Mistura, said Thursday that more than 180 trucks filled with aid had reached six areas under siege from different sides in the past two weeks.
The draft text obtained by AFP welcomes the truce as “a step towards a lasting ceasefire” and endorses the US-Russian agreement on the truce.
Maria Zakharova is also lauding efforts by Russian Federation and the United States – the two countries that engineered the truce – to makes sure the cease-fire holds.
The truce will go into effect at midnight Friday and some 97 rebel groups have said they will abide by it. “In any case, it should not be put on the Syrian government, which has agreed on the Russian-American initiative”.
UN-led talks seeking to broker a political solution between Syrian warring factions, namely Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and opposition forces, came to a premature standstill on February 3 after parties failed to see eye to eye on a number of issues.
The complexity of Syria’s battlefields – where moderate or Islamist forces often fight alongside jihadist groups – has raised doubts about the feasibility of any ceasefire that excludes Nusra, a group that balances transnational jihadist objectives with military goals of the broader rebellion.
“There will be no ceasefire with respect to ISIL, we remain relentless in going after them”, Obama told reporters after a meeting with the National Security Council at the State Department, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
Cavusoglu did not say how many planes Saudi Arabia would be sending to the base.
The Russian leader, however, insisted that there would be no let-up in Moscow’s bombing campaign against Islamic State (IS) jihadists, the Al-Nusra Front and other “terrorist groups” in Syria after the truce deal enters into force.
Davutoglu spoke on Turkish TV on Thursday.
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“We have since the beginning argued for… ground operations and all kinds of strategic moves to be carried out in addition to the air campaign”, Mr Cavusoglu said.
