Declassifying all relevant documents and endorsing them in a UN Security Council resolution would prevent speculation about the responsibilities of the parties involved, Russian Federation believes. “We are working on it”, he told reporters in NY. “I think we need to adopt it on the 21st (of September), this would make sense”, Churkin told reporters.
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“We hope to go tomorrow to eastern Aleppo”, said Syrian humanitarian task force chairman Jan Egeland, referring to a rebel-held area that has been under siege by government forces for more than a month. Back then, there was no civil war, no destruction, no hardship – and the family never thought they would one day have to flee Syria.
United Nations officials said they are still awaiting “a green light” to move.
The Russian defence ministry insisted that, from the very beginning of the truce, Moscow had been fulfilling its obligations, which includes ensuring that the Syrian air force does not bomb areas held by mainstream rebel forces and setting up checkpoints in divided second city of Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government forces and opposition fighters are now ready to withdraw from the Castello road, a main artery into Aleppo, to hand it over to Russian troops.
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.
However, Russia has said US-backed rebels have repeatedly violated the ceasefire deal.
But Russia said on Thursday the United States was using “a verbal smokescreen” to hide its reluctance to fulfill its part of the agreement, including separating what it called moderate opposition units from terrorist groups. “At the same time, the “moderate opposition” led by the U.S. is increasing the amount of attacks on residential districts”.
The reduction in violence since the U.S. -Russia agreement came into force at sunset on Monday had been substantial, but expecting a “cessation of hostilities” was perhaps ambitious after a war of five years, he said.
If the new ceasefire in Syria lasts for seven days, the United States and Russian Federation will launch the joint implementation center on distinguishing between opposition forces and terrorist groups.
Although early reports of calm in war-torn Syria may indicate that the cease-fire brokered by the US and Russian Federation is holding, it would be foolhardy to believe that peace is at hand.
-Russian deal. If aid flows and major military action does not resume, the idea is that after a full week of relative calm the USA and Russia will begin working together to target militants linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
But promised authorization from Damascus for large-scale humanitarian convoys had not yet been received. He said such letters and assurances needed to be taken care of immediately.
The ceasefire extension “provides us a critical window of opportunity” to assist people there, said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They said it will take time to share and analyze the recommended target data and make certain that innocent civilians or allies aren’t hit.
“They’ve been waiting and sleeping at the border now for 48 hours”.
“A lot of people are dying from poverty and disease and because of lack of sanitary support”, he said.
Twenty lorries loaded with much-needed food and other aid have been awaiting clearance at the Turkish border since Wednesday for the journey to Aleppo. And a sniper later shot dead another person in the city’s rebel-held east, it added. He told VOA that the only reason FSA groups and other rebel militias have observed the cease-fire is “for aid to get to the people of Aleppo and help civilians who desperately need food and medicines”.
The first 48 hours of calm might have ended but the road ahead, both for Syria and the new deal, doesn’t seem any less bumpy.
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But, given that a similar truce in February lasted only several weeks, the chances of this one taking hold permanently may be slim to none.
