As usual since this civil war erupted more than five years ago, Syrian civilians are paying the price.
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Russian Federation accused Syrian rebels of blocking aid to Aleppo and urged the U.S.to put pressure on the armed groups as the deadlock over humanitarian supplies cast a shadow over a four-day-old cease-fire.
The UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said the U.S. and Russian Federation were expected to manage the disengagement of forces, but criticised Damascus for failing to provide permits to make deliveries to other areas.
Speaking in Geneva, de Mistura blamed Assad’s government for the delay.
“We can not let days of this reduction of violence be wasted by not moving forward”, said Staffan de Mistura, adding that President Bashar Assad’s government is not providing required letters of permission to United Nations convoys so that they are allowed to travel to besieged cities.
Russian troops have deployed along a main road leading into rebel-held areas of the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo ahead of the possible arrival of aid convoys, a local activist said.
Aside from the reducing the bloodshed, the “second dividend” of the U.S. -Russia deal is humanitarian access, de Mistura told reporters in Geneva. That’s a fact. It is particularly regrettable because normally during these days we are losing time.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office, said the aid convoys were awaiting assurances of safety in Syria’s volatile northwest.
Egeland said aid convoys could reach besieged zones such as Moadamiyah, al Waer and Douma by the end of the week if the permits were issued, which would be simple to do.
The UN has prepared a convoy with food rations for tens of thousands of people, but the trucks remain stuck on the Turkish-Syrian border.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said aid was expected to arrive in the rebel-held city of Aleppo.
“At one point we’re going to be asked to support in greater detail this plan, so to do that we will need to have all the information”. Another child died of wounds sustained from a sniper fire in al-Masharfeh, a government-held neighborhood in Aleppo city.
The spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, told the Interfax news service that rebel troops continued to fire artillery at government forces and had not separated themselves from units loyal to a former affiliate of Al Qaeda that both the United States and Russian Federation have deemed a terrorist organization.
“By today this morning nothing had happened on the Castello Road”.
“Russia has from the first minute fulfilled its obligations to enforce the ceasefire regime on Syrian territory”.
Senior defense and military officials said they need to pull from different regions to move surveillance aircraft into Syria and increase the number of intelligence analysts to avoid diminishing the current US -led coalition campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Aleppo had been the center of fighting over the past months and Syrian government forces and their allies launched a wide offensive earlier this month, capturing several areas south of the city and putting eastern rebel-held neighborhoods under siege. “These are days which should be used in order to transfer aid since there is no fighting taking place”. Assad’s Foreign Ministry has also informed that Syrian will not allow any humanitarian aid, especially provided by Ankara, to enter Aleppo without coordination with the Assad regime.
Opposition activists said government forces tried to storm Jobar, northeast of the capital, but were repelled by opposition fighters.
And there’s a longer-term risk, Hof added: If the USA and Russian Federation succeed in defeating the Front for the Conquest of Syria, what’s to stop the Assad government from restarting its war against the smaller, weaker opposition?
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.
Russian Federation – which is flying a bombing campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad – insists that Syrian regime forces are fully respecting the truce, but US-backed rebels are violating it.
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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.
