The UN and Russian Federation are discussing about stopping hostilities in the divied Syrian city of Aleppo in efforts to help the two million people trapped in the city.
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Mevlut Cavusoglu’s comments came on Thursday, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited St. Petersburg for talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“There is certainly a huge risk of normalising [the use of chemical weapons]”, a British chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie said.
Despite calls for cease-fire and a promise from Russian Federation of a three-hour respite to allow in humanitarian aid, there has been no let up in the violence.
UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said that a 48-hour pause was required to ensure safe deliveries, adding: “What is the new and positive thing today is that the Russian Federation said they would like to sit down with us and the other co-chair [the United States] to discuss how the UN proposal could be implemented”.
Jan Egeland, who heads the UN-backed Syria humanitarian taskforce, said he was “hopeful” talks with Russian Federation could lead to aid entering the city.
The northern city of Aleppo, which was Syria’s most populated city before the war, is split between rebel and government held districts.
This killed an estimated 1,429 people, including at least 426 children.
The UN is working with Russian Federation to bring about a “humanitarian pause” to fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo, hours after reports of a gas attack on rebel-held districts of the divided city.
One pediatrician who signed the letter and spoke to AFP in the eastern districts said he was forced to watch children “die in our arms” because of dwindling medical supplies and repeated bombardment.
“We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers: we desperately need a zone free from bombing over eastern Aleppo to stop the attacks, and global action to ensure Aleppo is never besieged again”, the doctors write. “Prove that you are the friend of Syrians”, the letter said, according to the BBC.
Two men reported a strong smell of gas and said they saw barrel bombs before people began to suffer breathing and eye problems. Seven people were still receiving hospital treatment.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Thursday that reports of possible chemical weapons use in Syria “are of great concern”.
Khaled Harah, a first responder, said a government helicopter dropped four barrel bombs on the Zabadieh neighbourhood last night, and one of them released chlorine gas.
Even as Moscow pledged to pause strikes around the divided second city, it carried out raids further east on the Islamic State group bastion of Raqa that a monitor said killed 24 civilians.
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On Monday, the United Nations said countless civilians had been killed or injured in Aleppo in recent weeks and hospitals and clinics had continued to be targeted. For now, it is unclear if rebel groups will also uphold the temporary ceasefire. “The appropriate infrastructure will be built and our servicemen will live in worthy conditions”, Frants Klintsevich, the deputy head of Russia’s senate committee for defence, told Izvestia newspaper.
