600 wounded in Aleppo need medical evacuations

Geneva / AFP

The United Nations described on Thursday a desperate situation in Syria’s rebel-held eastern Aleppo, warning “hundreds” needed medical evacuation and that there was only enough food aid left for a quarter of the city’s population.
“Utmost on our mind is the need to address the very concerning medical situation” in the east of Aleppo, UN deputy envoy for Syria, Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy, told reporters in Geneva.
“Medical evacuations are urgently needed,” he stressed, adding that “probably hundreds” of people needed to be urgently evacuated from the war-ravaged city.
His comments came a day after two of the largest hospitals in the city’s east were bombed, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to describe that attack as a war crime.
Ramzy warned that medical supplies were running dangerously low and only around 35 doctors remained in eastern Aleppo, where an estimated 250,000 people have been under siege by government forces since early September.
“As many as 600 wounded cannot be provided with adequate treatment,” Ramzy said.
He also cautioned that “food stocks are running low”, with many bakeries closed and only 14,000 food-aid rations remaining.
With each of those rations enough to feed five people, that would be sufficient for 70,000 people, or only about a quarter of the population, according to the UN’s World Food Programme.
“We hope it will be possible to create conditions for (aid) deliveries to be made. The UN continues to be ready to deliver humanitarian assistance including medical supplies as soon as possible,” Ramzy said.
Speaking after a meeting of the UN-backed humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Ramzy said the discussions had been “long and difficult” and overshadowed by the situation in Syria’s second city.
He said the UN had appealed to taskforce co-chairs Washington and Moscow to help clear the way for desperately-needed aid to go into Aleppo and other areas.
The United States and Russia have meanwhile been busy trading blame over the collapse of a truce they negotiated on September 9, with Washington harshly criticising Moscow’s participation in the Aleppo offensive by forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“The bombing must stop. Civilians must be protected. And the cessation of hostilities must be restored,” Ramzy insisted.
The UN’s top envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told AFP Thursday that there was little prospect of restarting long hoped-for peace negotiations in light of the situation on the ground. Dozens of civilians have been killed, residential buildings have been reduced to rubble and residents of east Aleppo are facing severe shortages.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said at least 96 children have been killed and 223 wounded since Friday in eastern Aleppo.

Syria bombing continues
amid US threats: Russia

Moscow / AFP

Russia on Thursday said it is pressing on with its bombing campaign in Syria despite the US warning it will end talks on the conflict if Moscow does not halt the assault on Aleppo.
A ceasefire deal hammered out between Moscow and Washington that could have led to the two countries coordinating strikes on extremists has unravelled in acrimony, with both sides blaming each other for the failure.
Russia is backing up a ferocious assault by the forces of Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad to seize the rebel-held eastern half of the city of Aleppo that has sparked condemnation from the West.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted Moscow was still interested in seeing the deal with the US work out, but said Washington had failed to deliver on its side of the bargain.
“We have unfortunately taken note of the rather unconstructive character of the rhetoric from Washington over the past few days,” Peskov said.
“Moscow maintains its interest in cooperating with Washington for the realisation of the agreement.”
In the meantime, Peskov said “Moscow is continuing its air operation to support the anti-terrorist actions of the Syrian armed forces.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday that possible plans to set up a joint US-Russia military cell to target extremist groups in Syria could also be put on hold.
Kerry and Lavrov have been leading international efforts to bring Syria’s five-year-old civil war to an end, and on September 9 agreed to demand a ceasefire.
Moscow was to order its ally Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to rein in his military and end the bombardment of civilian communities, and Washington was to persuade rebel forces to separate themselves from the extremist Fateh al-Sham, the former Al-Qaeda affiliate once known as Al-Nusra Front.
But fighting continued and the truce collapsed.
In Moscow, the defense ministry said Wednesday that it was “ready to continue joint work with our American partners on the Syrian issue” but gave no sign that Russia is ready to ground the Syrian air force.

Talks ‘very difficult with bombs falling’: UN envoy

Vatican City / AFP

The UN envoy for Syria said on Thursday there was little prospect of an imminent restart of negotiations to try to end the raging conflict.
“At the moment, when bombs are falling all over, it is very difficult to justify resuming talks,” Staffan de Mistura said after he met Pope Francis at the Vatican.
De Mistura said he welcomed Francis’s willingness to speak out over the attacks, after the pontiff warned on Wednesday that God would hold those responsible for the Aleppo bombing to account.
“We are in a very critical moment, that’s why it is so essentially urgent to have the voice of people with the moral authority of the pope about the fact that there is no military solution,” de Mistura said.
“You can’t bomb your way to peace in Syria.”
The Swedish official said he had not given up all hope of re-establishing a ceasefire.
“I do recognise that sometimes in war you can talk and have the war going on,” he said. “At this moment it is the breakdown of an agreement which was the beginning of a new phase.
“I’m very worried and concerned that all this may lead to just a militarisation of the conflict but I m not pessimistic because I know there is no alternative (to talks).”