A boy carries a toy gun while riding a pick-up truck with other boys during a demonstration calling for aid to reach Aleppo near Castello road in Aleppo, Syria.
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Nevertheless, the ceasefire appears to have led to a respite in violence in the five-year civil war.
Konashenkov says the Syrian government forces are “the only party which is willing to hold talks, comply with the cease-fire and pull back the troops in order to allow United Nations humanitarian aid convoys”.
Lt. Gen. Viktor Poznikhir of the Russian military’s General Staff declared readiness to extend the US-Russia-brokered cease-fire for another 72 hours, adding that Moscow expects Washington to take “resolute action” to end violations by the US-backed opposition units.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said Moscow wanted a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the deal.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said that government forces and rebel fighters remained on the road after the ceasefire went into effect, and that the army was not willing to pull back before opposition forces did so.
The deal calls for the truce to be renewed every 48 hours, and for Washington and Moscow to begin unprecedented joint targeting of militants like Daesh and former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh Al-Sham Front if it lasts a week.
Although the deal came into effect on Monday, humanitarian aid has yet to reach the most deprived areas. France also says that the deal would not be credible so long as the provision of aid is disallowed.
The council was to hold closed consultations later Friday.
State television called the incident a violation of the ceasefire.
He says 40 aid trucks are ready to move and his priority is getting aid into the embattled, rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
Two convoys of aid for Aleppo have been waiting in no-man’s land, after crossing the Turkish border.
Earlier on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told US Secretary of State John Kerry in a phone call that the entire package of US-Russian agreements on Syria should be made public. Aid is expected to enter rebel-held Aleppo later Friday, he said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the BBC his country was confident that Syria would honour the ceasefire agreement but had “more doubts about the opposition”.
“As humanitarians this is immensely frustrating”.
Egeland said the aid is ready to move just as soon as approval is given. “The world is watching”, Swanson said.
The Syrian government has not confirmed or reported this news.
Earlier on Friday, Russia said that only Moscow and the Syrian regime were fulfilling the truce deal.
“Although the ceasefire agreement is bilateral, only one side is truly implementing it”, the ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement on Friday.
Air strikes and clashes have tested a fragile ceasefire in Syria, as civilians wait for aid and tensions mount between the United States and Russian Federation, which brokered the deal. But right now, amid the continuing tensions, they are going nowhere. France, a member of the USA -led coalition against DAESH, is a key backer of rebels fighting Assad’s forces and has previously voiced its concerns over how Washington negotiates with Moscow.
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It had been hoped that by the time the general assembly met, aid would be flowing into Syria, the ceasefire deepening, and a new era of Russian-American military co-operation possibly under way with the two sides jointly staging air strikes against the Islamic State terror group and other targets.
