“As of the third day (of the truce), only the Syrian army is observing the regime of silence”.
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CNN Senior International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen reached the government-controlled part of Aleppo on Thursday and said the area was as calm as he’d ever seen it.
Residents in Aleppo have welcomed the lull in the fighting that has ravaged Syria, displacing more than half the population and leaving former economic powerhouse Aleppo divided and destroyed.
Staffan de Mistura said a U.S. -Russia-brokered cease-fire deal agreed on last week has largely reduced the violence since it came into effect on Monday, but the humanitarian aid flow that was expected to follow has not materialized.
“Those facilitation letters, final permission for the United Nations to actually reach those areas [in need], have not been received”. That’s a fact. It is particularly regrettable because we are losing time. It was a part of a broader deal negotiated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his USA counterpart John Kerry on September 9 in Geneva.
As part of the deal brokered by the USA and Russian Federation, the aid should have been allowed to move unhindered.
Egeland said aid convoys could reach besieged zones such as Moadamiyah, al Waer and Douma by the end of the week if the permits were issued, which would be simple to do.
United Nations humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said both the rebels and the government were responsible for delaying aid.
“Can well-fed, grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratic, and procedural roadblocks for courageous humanitarian workers that are willing and able to go to serve women, children, wounded civilians in besieged areas?” he asked. The U.N. estimates about a quarter million people are trapped inside.
It is aimed at halting the fighting between the Syrian regime and opposition groups and includes specifying improved access for humanitarian aid and requiring the withdrawal of regime forces from the Castello road supply route.
The Pentagon however said it had no intelligence to indicate the withdrawal had begun.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Savchenko explains.
The United Nations faces “a problem” in shipping humanitarian aid into Syria, the U.N. envoy for the war-torn country said Thursday, pinning the blame on the lack of authorization from Bashar Assad’s government that has even disappointed Russian Federation, the Syrian president’s key backer.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner Toner acknowledged Wednesday that the situation hadn’t been ideal.
“This is one of the most serious violations of the ceasefire”, al-Shami said via Skype. We’re certainly aware that not all of the terms here, including most specifically the delivery of humanitarian assistance, have been met at this particular moment in time.
“Are we disappointed? Of course we are”.
Egeland reiterated the call for quick action in allowing humanitarian access.
Insurgents shelled government-held areas in the eastern Damascus neighbourhood of Qaboun, wounding three people, Syrian state media said.
He says they’re not prepared to sacrifice the possibility of resolving the fight for what they see as a short-term gain.
The situation remained mostly quiet in Aleppo, excluding a few incidents near the city, according to an Aleppo Media Center activist. There’s definitely been a dramatic change.
The ceasefire in Syria is holding “by and large”, according to the U.S. – but there are growing accusations of violations by both rebels and the Syrian army. He said he had been given fresh assurances by the Russians at a meeting on Thursday morning that the absence of the permission letters was a very severe disappointment, but he did not specify what pressure the Russians were placing on the Syrians to abide by the agreement. The U.S. officials laid out a number of questions that must be resolved before any targeting could start, including how much control either country may have over strikes taken by the other, how will the review process unfold, do either have a veto over any target, and who would be the final arbiter in any disagreements.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the casualties, saying they were two children.
