France calls for urgent preparations for Syrian airdrops
The UN said in May that if it did not see an improvement in access for aid to besieged areas of Syria by June 1 it would task the UN food agency to carry out air drops.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday it had agreed a pause with the Syrian authorities for 48 hours to allow for the distribution of humanitarian aid in Darayya.
“I remain extremely concerned for the welfare of people trapped in the towns of Marea and Sheikh Issa as ISIL [Islamic State group] forces advance; for the people in eastern Aleppo; and am appalled at the mortar attack on the Mseifra IDP camp in Daraa Governorate last weekend”, O’Brien said after briefing the Security Council.
United Nation officials expressed hope Thursday that desperately needed food and medicine would begin flowing this month to many of almost 600,000 Syrians living in besieged communities.
His comments came after France and Britain on Wednesday called on the United Nations to urgently begin the aid deliveries by air.
The U.N. estimates that 592,700 people live under siege in 19 areas - and says that government troops are blocking delivery of aid to 16 of those areas.
Moscow initiated the ceasefire to provide humanitarian aid to residents in the area, Sergei Kuralenko, head of Russia’s centre for promoting peace in Syria, said, according to state news agency TASS.
The coalition of countries that make up the International Syria Support Group, which includes countries like the USA and the United Kingdom, called on the World Food Program to make humanitarian air drops in besieged areas identified by the U.N. However, it appears that the global body is unwilling to make the unilateral move without the support of other countries, notably the Syria-supporting Russian government.
Syria’s U.N. Mission sent an email Thursday night saying it approved the delivery of humanitarian aid in June to 36 “restive areas”, including the besieged towns of Kafr Batna, East Harasta, Foua and Kefraya.
“Air delivery is complex and extremely expensive, but it remains an option”, Ramzy E. Ramzy, a United Nations deputy special envoy for Syria, said during a news conference in NY.
On Wednesday, the Syrian regime allowed deliveries of infant formula, medicine and vaccines to Daraya near Damascus, the first aid convoy to reach the town since 2012.
Around 400,000 people live in besieged areas in Syria and a further three million are in hard-to-reach areas. “We need space, a lot of open space, to be able to do airdrops”. “Daesh is using its entire means to stop the forces”, he said by telephone from near the front line, referring to the Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it had already drawn up a plan to carry out air drops, but that it would need Syrian government approval and funding for the operation.
Damascus refused access to the besieged areas of Al Wa’er of Homs in western Syria and to the rebel-held city of Zabadani in the southwest.
Barring that, however, air drops would be the next step, he said.
The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance had seized 20 villages outside the town, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.