The truce brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov is meant to suspend the civil war for a week to reduce violence and allow humanitarian aid deliveries into besieged areas.
Advertisement
Earlier Friday, the “Wall Street Journal” reported that the USA had agreed to send 40 special operations troops to work alongside Turkish forces to fight militants with the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) in northern Syria. The U.N. estimates about a quarter million people are trapped inside.
Also commenting on the state of the truce White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that there had been little progress in terms of access for humanitarian aid.
The Russian military has accused the Syrian opposition of using the truce to regroup and strengthen its forces.
The monitoring group said at least half of those killed were women and children, adding that it was unclear who had carried out the raids. “He also suggested that secrecy served the interests of keeping opposition groups safe from attack by Russian-backed regime forces”, Mr.Toner said.
Vitaly Churkin said there was no point in briefing the council if the U.S. did not want to say exactly what was in the documents outlining the deal hammered out last week by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“Despite the agreement, opposition ranks have not withdrawn their hardware and weapons from the Castello Road”, Savchenko said.
If the aid starts flowing and the cease-fire holds, the expectations are that such a climate would pave the way for the restart of Syria peace talks that collapsed earlier this year.
Konashenkov blamed the USA for “its failure to honor its part of the commitments, especially on disengaging the moderate opposition”.
Just before that deadline the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.
The aid impasse came as Russian Federation put pressure on the USA to release the text of the agreement, and urged the U.S. to allow it to form the basis of a United Nations security council resolution next week.
Staffan de Mistura said a U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire deal agreed on last week has largely reduced the violence since it came into effect on Monday, but the humanitarian aid flow that was expected to follow has not materialized.
The truce does not include the Islamic State group, and the US -led coalition, Russian Federation and Syrian government forces have all been carrying out strikes against the extremist group.
The ceasefire agreement does not include ISIS or other terrorist groups, such as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front.
Aleppo-based activist Bahaa al-Halaby said humanitarian conditions in the eastern neighborhoods of Syria’s largest city are deteriorating.
In the Syrian capital, Damascus, rare clashes between government forces and an insurgent group produced some of the heaviest fighting seen in weeks, which was audible throughout the city. SANA said the shelling violates the cease-fire.
Al Qaida and Islamic State group fighters, who are excluded from the ceasefire, are not present in the area, he said.
“It’s particularly regrettable because we are losing time”, de Mistura said.
Advertisement
Mr Kerry said the delays, which have left 40 lorries of vital supplies stuck on the Syria-Turkey border for five days, were “repeated and unacceptable”, and told the Russian foreign minister that Washington “expects Russia to use its influence on the Assad regime to allow United Nations humanitarian convoys to reach Aleppo and other areas in need”.
