The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria on Thursday said the ceasefire following last Friday’s Russia-United States agreement is largely holding but that desperately-awaited humanitarian convoys are unable to move due to a delay in getting permits from the Syrian Government.
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At on Thursdays briefing, de Mistura said that the agreement between the USA and Russian Federation on the cessation of hostilities in Syria last Friday was a game-changer because violence has been reduced substantially.
The UN had hoped that 40 trucks of food – enough to feed 80,000 people for one month – could be delivered to besieged rebel-held eastern parts of Aleppo as soon as possible.
Aid for Aleppo, however, has been stuck on the Turkish border for five days now, with the United Nations calling on the Syrian government to “immediately” allow life-saving supplies into the city’s rebel-held areas, where about 300,000 people are living under siege.
“This is one of the most serious violations of the cease-fire”, al-Shami said via Skype. It is particularly regrettable because [] we are losing time, Staffan de Mistura told a press briefing in Geneva.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed five documents, which they said would not be publicly released.
Senior Russian officer Vladimir Savchenko said Friday that government troops have returned to the Castello Road after aborting a pullback because rebels were not withdrawing as agreed.
However, Syrian government forces and rebels had yet to withdraw from a road to be used to deliver aid to Aleppo this morning.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Russia’s task was to restrain the forces of president Bashar al-Assad’s regime while Washington leans on the rebel groups opposing him.
Konashenkov blamed the US for “its failure to honor its part of the commitments, especially on disengaging the moderate opposition”.
Russian Federation today accused Washington of failing to meet its obligations under the Syria ceasefire agreement, while criticising United States officials for voicing scepticism over cooperation with Moscow.
The claims against the Assad regime followed other claims by Russia’s military that more than 60 violations by rebels have occurred since the cease-fire took effect Monday. The White House said the meeting was scheduled before the cease-fire deal was announced.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting between government troops and rebels is concentrated in the neighborhood of Jobar, next to Qaboun where rebels have had a presence for years.
A USA official told CNN Friday that until the humanitarian aid begins to flow, the Pentagon will not consider the Russians or the regime to be in compliance with the ceasefire agreement.
Mazen al-Shami, an opposition activist near Damascus, says government forces tried to storm Jobar but were repelled by opposition fighters.
Elsehwere in the same province, an airstrike Thursday on the IS-held town of Mayadeen killed at least four people and wounded dozens, said opposition activists and Deir el-Zour 24, an activist collective.
The U.S. will also need additional targeting experts to identify and approve airstrikes against the al Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fatah al Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.
The truce does not include the Islamic State group.
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“The main problem. which in my mind makes it impossible to produce any resolution, is that they are refusing to give those documents to members of the Security Council or even to read those documents to the members of the Security Council”, Churkin told reporters.
