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Syrian government's aid block is in breach of ceasefire agreement, UN says

The UN's Envoy to Syria has appealed for President Bashar al-Assad to 'immediately' allow the passage of aid into besieged East Aleppo

Thursday 15 September 2016 14:01 BST
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Syrian government's aid block is in breach of ceasefire agreement, UN says

The Syrian government is breaking the terms of the US-Russian brokered ceasefire agreement by delaying letters of permission for aid conveys to travel into the country, a UN official has said.

“The Syrian government promised permits for UN aid convoys before the ceasefire [that have] not been received,” De Mistura said. “This is something that is required to happen immediately,” Staffan de Mistura, the UN and Arab League's special envoy to Syria, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday.

A much-needed aid delivery to 300,000 people in besieged East Aleppo was a key part of the agreement between the government and rebel groups, which came into effect on Monday. Letters of permission from the Syrian government for humanitarian deliveries were not part of the deal.

At least 20 trucks carrying enough supplies for 40,000 people are currently being held at the Turkish-Syrian border, unable to travel further without permission from the Damascus government. De Mistura said “hundreds” more trucks were ready to be mobilised, although it could still take days for aid to reach the city.

Inside Aleppo, the opposition civilian council has vowed to block aid deliveries, claiming they want freedom and an end to the five-year war, rather than just the agreed seven days' worth of peace.

There are also reports that fighters allied with Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, which previously called itself al-Nusra, are attempting block the main road designated as an aid corridor.

A rebel fighter on the streets of Aleppo in April

De Mistura said that he had had reassurances from Russia on Thursday that they found the aid blockade “disappointing”, but did not elaborate on whether Russian diplomats would pressure their allies in the Syrian government to speed up deliveries.

The ceasefire, which began at sundown on Monday, appears to largely be holding, with no civilian deaths reported by monitoring groups in the last 48 hours.

The agreement was criticised for its lack of monitoring processes, and for not making provisions for the estimated 200,000 other people in Syria currently living under siege conditions.

Sure, this is less than perfect,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlir this week. “But flawed compared to what? Compared to nothing?”

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