The U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura says “we have a problem” on getting humanitarian aid into Syria, despite the U.S. -Russia brokered deal.
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“We can not let days of this reduction of violence be wasted by not moving forward”, he told reporters in Geneva.
“It’s crucially important [that] the necessary security arrangements should be given so that they can be allowed to cross the lines”, he said.
The U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said both the rebels and the government were responsible for delaying aid deliveries into Aleppo. “It is particularly regrettable …” They “have not been received”, he added.The lack of permission was “a very major disappointment” even for Syria’s ally Russian Federation, de Mistura said.
The UN Syria envoy on Tuesday urged the Damascus government to allow humanitarian aid deliveries “immediately”, indicating the regime had broken its pledges on the distribution of life-saving supplies.
Egeland said that “armed men will block the drivers from reaching women and children” in need if the proper permits were not presented. “Can well-fed, grown men please stop putting political, bureaucratic and procedural roadblocks in the way of courageous humanitarian workers who are willing and able to go to serve women, children and wounded civilians in besieged and cross-fire areas?”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, meanwhile, says Thursday’s airstrike killed seven people. Control of the Castello Road is divided between the government and rebels who have been battling to topple President Bashar al-Assad for more than five years.
But there have been a handful of violations on both sides, Toner acknowledged.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday said it began a live public webcast from cameras on the ground and on a drone in Aleppo to monitor the cease-fire. United Nations officials also were anxious about attacks by militants who have rejected the cease-fire. The Syrian government’s air force would also be grounded.
Russian Federation has accused the United States of failing to fulfil its obligations under the truce agreement in Syria.
Syrian children play in the street as they celebrate the third day of the Al-Adha Eid (Festival of Sacrifice) Muslim holiday in the rebel-controlled town of Hamouria, in the eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, on the second day of an internally backed ceasefire for Syria came into effect as part of a hard-fought deal to bring an end to the war between rebels and regime fighters on September 14, 2016.
Over 2,000 people were killed in 40 days of fighting in Aleppo until the cease-fire went into effect Monday.
He said that “not a single permit is in hand for our people, and if they don’t have that they can not load and they can not go”.
“No aid has arrived in Aleppo”.
The ceasefire extension “provides us a critical window of opportunity to assist the people in need in east Aleppo”, said a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, David Swanson.
Aided by Russian air power and Shi’ite militias, the Syrian army this month renewed its siege on rebel-held eastern Aleppo, home to at least 250,000 people.
In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry said that it was following the ceasefire with interest and hoped it will help alleviate suffering among the “brotherly Syrian people”.
By evening Wednesday, there were no reports of major violations of the agreement, which calls on all parties to hold their fire, allowing only for airstrikes against the extremist Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
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Under the terms of the deal, if peace holds for seven days, Russian Federation and the United States will begin coordinated military strikes against targeted terror groups in the conflict. Some groups, however, have expressed hesitance about breaking with the al-Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Sham group, who they have teamed up with to fight the Syrian government but who, along with other hardline Islamist groups, are excluded from the truce and could yet be targeted by both the USA and Russian Federation.
