Staffan de Mistura put the blame squarely on a lack of authorisation from Bashar Assad’s government that has even disappointed the Syrian president’s key backer: Russian Federation.
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The cease-fire in Syria brokered by the US and Russian Federation last week appears largely to be holding after it went into effect on Monday, despite what were described as sporadic, minor violations of the accord.
Aid convoys moved into the Turkish border town of Cilvegozu, waiting authorization from the Syrian government to enter the country and deliver supplies to eastern Aleppo.
So far it has produced “a significant drop in violence”, according to the UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, but a key plank of the deal calling for unhindered aid access, in particular to besieged areas of Syria, has yet to be implemented.
The UN has called on the Syrian government to “immediately” allow life-saving aid into eastern Aleppo, where about 300,000 people are living under siege.
“The second dividend of the USA and Russian agreement was, and remains, humanitarian access. We want food to come in”, said Abu Jamil, a resident of the rebel-held east. “It is particularly regrettable”.
We still have five days to go before we can judge whether at least the first stage of the cease-fire is a success. “That the Russians and Assad simply bomb indiscriminately for days to come and we sit there and do nothing?”
The truce went into effect earlier this week in Syria and has been mostly holding across the war-torn country despite minor violations.
Russia, said on Wednesday it was preparing for the Syrian army and rebel fighters to begin a staged withdrawal from the Castello road.
United Nations aid trucks are waiting north of Aleppo in Turkey, but a Syrian security source told AFP the regime had yet to withdraw its forces from the key Castello Road running to the Turkish border.
The Obama administration’s pact with Russia to strengthen military cooperation in Syria has prompted a widening rift between Secretary of State John Kerry and top Pentagon officials, who warn against sharing intelligence with Russian forces.
That casualty toll is according to Deir el-Zour 24, an activist collective.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian conflict through contacts on the ground, said no deaths from fighting had been reported in the first 48 hours of the truce.
The move is necessary before the USA and Russian Federation can start conducting joint air strikes targeting Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and so-called Islamic State (IS).
“Our appeal is the following – it’s a simple one”, Mr Egeland said.
“Can well-fed grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratic and procedural road blocks for fearless humanitarian workers that are willing to go to serve women, children, wounded civilians in besieged and crossfire areas?”
Syrian children play in the street in the rebel-controlled town of Hamouria as they celebrate the third day of the Al-Adha Eid Muslim holiday on the second day of an internally backed ceasefire on September 14, 2016.
The strained rhetoric came as the first United Nations aid convoy bound for besieged eastern Aleppo remained stuck in the absence of permits from Damascus.
The Syrian civil war started as a largely unarmed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a full-on armed conflict.
“No aid has arrived in Aleppo”.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency says the Turkish Red Crescent on Tuesday distributed meat from animals sacrificed for Eid al-Adha to 4,500 households in Jarablus. The report said two people guarding the location were wounded.
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Syrian state media reported almost two dozen violations by insurgents, mostly mortar attacks and sniper shots.
