U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters on Tuesday that “calm seems to have prevailed across Hama, Latakia, Aleppo City and rural Aleppo and Idlib – with only some allegations of sporadic and geographically isolated incidents”.
Advertisement
“One thing we can say with confidence is there has been a significant drop in the level of violence – not to zero, obviously, and we would like to see even a greater drop in the days to come”, he said, as cited by Voice of America.
The convoys, each of around 20 trucks carrying mostly food and flour, set off from the Turkish border town of Cilvegozu, 40 km (25 miles) west of Aleppo, on Tuesday but made it little further than the Turkish customs post on the Syrian border.
Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to have led to a respite in violence in the five-year civil war that’s killed 430,000 people, according to one estimate, and touched off an worldwide refugee crisis.
Monitors confirm they’ve recorded no deaths anywhere in Syria in the past 48 hours – a major contrast to last week, when Russian and Syrian planes were dropping bombs onrebel-held Aleppo.
But he said the United Nations was still waiting for Damascus to issue letters authorizing the deliveries.
A Syrian opposition politician said on Wednesday he did not have great confidence that a truce brokered by the United States and Russian Federation would last longer than a previous one that temporarily curbed the fighting earlier this year.
But such violations are not uncommon in the early hours of a ceasefire. “TECHNICAL ISSUES” A second senior USA official said there were some “technical issues” to be resolved before the trucks could proceed.
Once the joint Russian-US targeting begins, however, government warplanes “will no longer be able to fly in any areas of Syria where there is opposition or Al-Nusra Front presence”, a senior US administration official said.
Ban said he was in talks with Russian Federation and the United States to turn up the pressure on all sides to guarantee the security of the UN aid convoy. Sabra also said it was too early to talk about any resumption of peace talks, and that this hinged on the implementation of humanitarian clauses of a United Nations resolution passed past year.
The agreement is also to allow for humanitarian aid to reach besieged areas, with the rebel-held part of the northern city of Aleppo as a priority. “We’re pressuring them to pressure the Assad regime”. The United Nations has repeatedly criticised the Syrian government for restricting access, especially to besieged areas, and for removing vital items from convoys. But “we will allow [the aid] because our people are suffering”.
Advertisement
The ceasefire deal, meant to bring humanitarian relief, calls for a halt to the violence between the Syrian regime and rebel forces.
