REPORT: UN Syria envoy bemoans lack of aid deliveries, seeks Aleppo truce

Aid convoys have been unable to reach civilians trapped in besieged areas of Syria this month and a humanitarian task force has been suspended to prod big powers to double down on securing a ceasefire, the U.N. peace envoy on Syria said on Thursday.
 
Staffan de Mistura said a 48-hour pause in fighting in the northern city of Aleppo was the main goal for a meeting, under wat on Thursday, of major and regional powers tasked with resurrecting a collapsed cessation of hostilities accord.
 
"I again insist on behalf of the Secretary General of the U.N. and of all the Syrian people (on having) a 48-hour pause in Aleppo to start with," de Mistura told reporters.

 

"That would require some heavy lifting from not only the two co-chairs (Russia and the United States) but also those who have an influence on those who are fighting on the ground." Russia and the United States back opposite sides in the civil war.
 
De Mistura spoke after suspending the weekly meeting of the humanitarian task force after eight minutes "as a sign of deep unhappiness" with the failure to restore calm to enable aid deliveries to stricken civilians in besieged districts.
 
The European Union's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, also called for an immediate halt to fighting in Aleppo to allow for medical evacuations, aid deliveries and necessary repairs to water and electricity infrastructure.

 

 

For its part, the Russian defense ministry said on Twitter later on Thursday that Russia is willing to support a proposal by de Mistura for weekly 48-hour "humanitarian pauses" in Syria's Aleppo.
 
Russia is ready to introduce the first "humanitarian pause" next week, the ministry said.

Aleppo, split into rebel- and government controlled areas, has become the focus of fighting in Syria's five-year-old civil war. Up to two million people on both sides lack access to clean water after infrastructure was damaged in bombing.
 
Escalating violence in what was Syria's most populous pre-war city and biggest commercial hub has caused Geneva peace talks overseen by De Mistura to break down.
 
The Syrian opposition has said it wants to see a credible pause in the bloodshed, as well as improved humanitarian aid access, before peace talks can resume.
 
Around 590,200 people are now living in besieged areas of Syria, according to U.N. figures.
 
Aid convoys have ground to a halt during August, and the only supplies being delivered are by air drops to Deir al-Zor, the government-controlled city of 200,000 in the east under siege by Islamic State, de Mistura said.
 
Moreover, no aid has reached four besieged towns covered by a local agreement in the last 110 days, he said. These were rebel-besieged Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province, and government-besieged Madaya and Zabadani near Damascus.