The United Nations urged Syria’s government on Thursday to “immediately” allow humanitarian aid into the country, after a fragile ceasefire was extended for 48 hours by Russian Federation and the United States.
Advertisement
At a news conference Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, and his adviser, Jan Egeland, said they believed they could obtain permits to deliver the aid.
The separate blockage over eastern Aleppo has left 20 United Nations trucks that travelled from Turkey into a buffer zone waiting for the past 48 hours for United Nations agreement that it is safe to travel along the Castello Road, the main supply route into the divided city, where 250,000 people are desperate for food and fuel.
In addition to eastern Aleppo, UN convoys, if they receive permits, are ready to go to places like Moadameya, to Al-Waer, to Talbiseh to Douma, to all of the besieged areas close to Damascus, close to Homs, and elsewhere, he explained.
A much-needed aid delivery to 300,000 people in besieged East Aleppo was a key part of the agreement between the government and rebel groups, which came into effect on Monday. Apart from seeing no more bombs or mortar shelling taking place, the agreement allows for humanitarian access.
“It is particularly regrettable”.
Stalled convoys, seeking to ferry food for tens of thousands of people, have quickly become a symbol of the wider challenges linked to the cease-fire effort even as fighting has sharply eased over the past days.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed five documents, which they said would not be publicly released.
State department spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday that “we’ve seen violations on both sides” in Syria, although the ceasefire is broadly holding.
But one main highway stands in the way of delivering aid to rebel-held eastern Aleppo: Castello Road.
Leaders saw the cease-fire as an ideal opportunity to deliver the aid because there is essentially no fighting, and no threat to aid workers – which has been a major obstacle in getting aid delivered so far.
Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador, said there were discussions at the United Nations on the proposed resolution that could be adopted on Wednesday when the Security Council holds a special meeting on Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group also reported the government was leaving the area.
“From the first minute Russia’s been meeting its obligations to enforce the cessation of hostilities in Syria”, the defense ministry said in the statement.
Assad’s refusal is a direct violation of the ceasefire agreement.
“The reason we’re not in eastern Aleppo has again been a combination of very hard and detailed discussions around security monitoring and passage of roadblocks – which is both opposition and government”, Egeland told Reuters. “The regime is refusing to allow aid into Aleppo”, said Aleppo-based activist Baraa al-Halaby.
“No aid has arrived in Aleppo”. The report said two people guarding the location were wounded. It said three shells were also fired at the government-held southern village of Hadar.
Twenty-three civilians including 9 children were killed in air strikes on an ISIS-held town in eastern Deir Ezzor province Thursday, a monitor said. It wasn’t known who carried out the attack. The US says al-Nusra is linked to al-Qaida and is a legitimate target alongside Islamic State.
Advertisement
Once humanitarian deliveries take place, and if the ceasefire holds, this should set in motion the third major component of the landmark agreement calling for military cooperation between the United States and Russian Federation to target terrorist groups such as Nusra – now known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham – and ISIS.
