Fatih Erel
GENEVA: A UN adviser on Thursday urged Russia and the U.S. to help in the delivery of aid and civilian and medical evacuation from Syria’s besieged Eastern Ghouta region after the Syrian regime refused permits to aid convoys.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Jan Egeland, adviser to the UN special envoy for Syria, said: “So far, we have not been able to move any convoys to eastern Ghouta at all since one little convoy in mid-February; it is because we have not gotten a single facilitation letter by the Syrian government.”
Last Saturday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a 30-day cease-fire in Syria without delay.
Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb, has been under siege for the last five years and humanitarian access to the area, which is home to some 400,000 people, has been completely cut off.
In the past eight months, forces of the Assad regime have intensified their siege of Eastern Ghouta, making it nearly impossible for food or medicine to get into the district and leaving thousands of patients in need of treatment.
Hundreds have been killed by the Assad regime airstrikes in recent days.
“We will call again Russia, U.S. and these countries who have influence in Eastern Ghouta and the other places to beg them to help us with several things:
Get several convoys per week to reach all of Eastern Ghouta, get 1,000 priority medical cases evacuated from eastern Ghouta and also to see evacuation of civilians out of the conflict zones,” Egeland said.
“All of this should be possible if UN Security Council resolution becomes reality.
Since the resolution was adopted, it did not get better, it has gotten worse,” he added.
Egeland also said a Russian plan for a five-hour pause in the fighting in Eastern Ghouta “is not enough.”
“We need much more than five hours,” he added.
Noting the worsening situation in Raqqah where 125 deaths have been recorded since October 2017, Egeland said: “We are ready and willing to go to Raqqah, what we need is government’s permit and we need also security assessment of the situation inside.”
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for urgent deployment of a joint mission by the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for Raqqah, which had been “bombed to rubble”.
Since last September, energy-rich parts of the country — such as Deir ez-Zor, Raqqah and Al-Hasakah — have been handed over to the PYD/PKK terrorists by Daesh with air support provided by the U.S.
Humanitarian operations in Syria have also been marred by a lack of funds, Egeland warned, saying the UN operations for all of Syria so far this year had been 95 percent underfunded.
Meanwhile, commenting on the political solution for Syria conflict, UN’s Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said:
“Towards the next few days, you will be getting from me some indication of clear initiative from our side.”
De Mistura also said the UN had been pushing for aid convoy access to Eastern Ghouta in order to prevent a repeat of Aleppo.
Syria has been locked in a devastating conflict since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
According to UN officials, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict to date. (AA)
