This question, along with the thorny issue of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Turkey for last month’s failed coup, will be on the table when American Vice President Joe Biden visits Ankara for talks on Wednesday.
Advertisement
Stephen O’Brien, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, on Monday reiterated his call for a 48-hour ceasefire in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, saying that the United Nations is ready to send humanitarian assistance to the people in the city.
“I’m not going to pretend. I’m angry, very angry”, O’Brien told council members holding their third meeting on the crisis in Aleppo this month.
He went on to stress that no aid had been delivered to the city in August due to the fighting in the city.
An estimated 275 000 people are living under siege in the city’s rebel-held eastern part, while up to 1.5 million are also in need of humanitarian aid in the city’s government-held western parts.
“In Aleppo, we risk seeing a humanitarian catastrophe unparalleled in the over five years of bloodshed and carnage in the Syrian conflict”, said O’Brien.
“While this (Russian) statement is positive, this can not be a one-sided offer”, O’Brien told the UN Security Council.
“While this (Russian) statement is positive, this can not be a one-sided offer”, O’Brien said.
He said the UN was talking with all parties to reach a “a comprehensive pause”, but he urged the United States and Russian Federation to come to an agreement.
Wu also called on the global community including other countries in the region to support UN’s leading role in the area of good offices to sustain the momentum for political settlement and ensure the process can come to fruition.
Advertisement
He repeated his appeals for United Nations action, not just on Aleppo, but to end the war in Syria saying: “When hospital attacks have become the new normal, when medieval sieges of entire cities and neighborhoods have become a lasting reality for hundreds of thousands of people, this council can not look the other way”. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
