United Nations aid trucks carrying food for besieged civilians in Aleppo remained stuck at the Syrian border Friday (Sep 16), as diplomatic tensions mounted between Washington and Moscow over a fragile ceasefire deal.
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The United States and Russian Federation have called for a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the fragile ceasefire in Syria.
Earlier Thursday, activists said the cease-fire was still holding despite some violations.
“The Syrian army is blocking an attack by armed groups that tried to enter the capital’s east via Jobar”.
The Fatah al-Sham Front, linked to al-Qaeda and previously known as the Nusra Front, is deeply embedded in rebel-held areas and fights alongside more moderate groups.
State television spoke of a violation of the ceasefire.
“Humanitarian conditions are very hard”, Mr al Halaby said.
Convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Syria’s besieged city of Aleppo have been held up for yet another day, as fighting between Syrian forces and rebel fighters outside Damascus raised concerns about the longevity of a fragile ceasefire.
“There are wounded people and others who need food”, Mr al-Halaby said.
“The challenge we continue to face – and this is the very sad reality – is ensuring all parties to the conflict, and those with influence over them, are in agreement”, he told AFP.
It had been hoped that by the time the general assembly met, aid would be flowing into Syria, the ceasefire deepening, and a new era of Russian-American military co-operation possibly under way with the two sides jointly staging air strikes against the Islamic State terror group and other targets.
The US Central Command statement came after Syria and Russian Federation said the US-led coalition had struck a Syrian military base in Deir el-Zour which is surrounded by IS militants, enabling the extremists to advance.
“As humanitarians this is immensely frustrating. The world is watching”, Swanson said. Under the agreement, combatants are expected to withdraw from Castello Road, the only way in and out of the besieged part of eastern Aleppo.
Even if the bombardment of the Syrian government troops was a mistake, the spokesman said, it is still a effect of Washington’s unwillingness to coordinate its anti-terror efforts with Moscow. If it holds for a week, Moscow and Washington are to begin unprecedented joint operations against jihadist groups in Syria.
Under a fragile truce deal negotiated by the United States and Russian Federation, fighting in Syria is to halt on all fronts across the country except those held by IS.
“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”, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said in a statement to the press.
USA officials and the International Syria Support Group will go through details of the deal next week on the sidelines of UN General Assembly annual meetings, he added.
On Friday, a coalition of at least 100 Syrian and global nongovernmental organizations released a statement urging the United States and Russian Federation to pressure the government and Syrian opposition to allow aid to get through during the rare period of calm.
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“The largest impediment is [Syrian President Bashar] Assad not giving the green light to trucks coming across the border” to reach Aleppo, an Obama administration official said in Washington.
