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Syria talks should not rest on halt in Aleppo fighting – Russian Federation

“The security situation has been too grave, too hard even for the very, very fearless United Nations and humanitarian partners – people on the ground who are determined to deliver”. “We can deliver these within 24 to 48 hours if we have safe access”.

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Churkin said the United States and Russian Federation were “very practically” discussing in Geneva how aid could be delivered to Aleppo and that Moscow supported a 48-hour pause in fighting, but that such a truce “does not apply to terrorists”. United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien, who also briefed the council, said talks were ongoing.

The World Health Organisation said more than 15 Aleppo doctors who were outside the city when the government laid siege to the eastern part of it in mid-July and were now unable to return.

Council diplomats were supportive of the humanitarian pauses, but it was not clear what immediate steps they would take to make them happen. John Brennan said, Syria won’t remain as a single country “again”. “A restored cessation, in turn, would not only allow the worldwide community to engage in alleviating the human suffering in Aleppo, but also pave the way for restarting the intra-Syrian talks”, said EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and EU Commissioner for humanitarian aid Christos Stylianides, in a joint statement. “Getting clean water running again can not wait for the fighting to stop”.

UNICEF warns Aleppo’s residents face an increase of diarrhea and malnutrition among children unless water pumping is restored soon.

Immediately following his closed-door briefing to the Security Council on the “horrific” humanitarian situation in Aleppo, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien told reporters that the fighting is “raging” in Syria’s second city where two million people are now living in fear of besiegement.

“The big battle has not started yet”, Abdulrahim told AFP.

Russia, however, maintained that there should be no pre-conditions for the talks that the United Nations is hoping to reconvene in Geneva at the end of the month. But the escalation in Aleppo has cast doubt on that possibility, with several western diplomats saying there could not be substantive negotiations without a stop to the fighting.

“The lower the level of violence, the better it is for the talks and we share that approach, but there must be no preconditions for the talks”, said Churkin.

People inspect a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel held town of Atareb in Aleppo province, Syria, July 25, 2016.

Syrian state TV broadcast an urgent plea for volunteers, amid reports the army and its Lebanese Hezbollah allies were bringing in reinforcements to try to retake a strategic corridor south and west of Aleppo.

Fighting between government forces and rebels has intensified in recent weeks and on Sunday rebels cut off the government’s key access route into western Aleppo, prompting an intense campaign of air strikes by pro-government forces.

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces had not taken control of the southwestern areas that would cut the rebel corridor, but had temporarily blocked movement of insurgents with bombardments. A rebel official denied any government advance in the area.

The battle for Syria's contested city of Aleppo has crippled its infrastructure